Nothing in particular today, just an easy click from Sunday's afternoon shooting in my yard. Nice and soft natural light gives the colors of this American Goldfinch in its winter plumage the right push. As I said, an easy click...
Today things didn't really go my way. I had planned to go to Mississippi dam #14 down in Le Claire and was hoping to make some Bald Eagle pictures. I wrote about this already three days ago. All camera batteries were fully charged, the CF-cards formatted, and the gear was ready to be used. As always, I like to be prepared when I go out for any kind of shooting. It wasn't the photo gear that prevented me today from seeing any eagles. After four miles of driving I pulled over into the parking lot of Heritage Pond just north of Dubuque. I wanted to check on some noise coming from one of the front tires. What I found was a little crack that made the tire already bulging. I thought it was too dangerous to continue driving for several hours under those circumstances. After using all the words that are usually beeped out on TV I decided to return home. Better safe than sorry.
Just before I left I saw that a flock of Canada Geese and a couple Mallard Ducks were resting around a spot of open water on the thin ice of the pond. The light was great in quality and quantity. I got the tripod out and made a very slow and careful approach towards the birds. I took about 15 minutes to get as close as possible to the geese without disturbing them. 45 minutes and 490 clicks later a lady jumped out of her car and made the same approach in about 30 seconds!! The geese, of course, turned around and moved further away and the ducks were even flying off. I bet her pictures suck… ;-) What can I say, I guess I made the best out of my dilemma today. I came home with a damaged tire but also with a bunch of wildlife shots, and most important, I had a good time shooting in great light for almost an hour.
Yesterday I was in southern Minnesota. I left home before sunrise and returned right after sunset. I love this kind of business trip here in the Midwest, especially if the weather is so mild and the road conditions are reasonable. I enjoy driving through the little rural towns in Iowa or Minnesota, where the time sometimes seems to stand still. But we all know this is just an illusion.
The sun was still an inch above the horizon when I approached the town of Guttenberg at the Mississippi River. Just north of town is this little peninsula reaching into the river. I have seen it completely flooded before but yesterday the rays of the setting sun gave it a wonderful warm touch and the icy blue of the water made for a nice color contrast. I had only a minute to make a few clicks before the shadows of the bluffs on the Iowa side of the river took it all away.
Burt Gearhart, a photographer from Le Claire, Iowa sent me a couple great Bald Eagle pictures he made last Monday at the Mississippi River near dam #14. This is good news. These were only his first eagle pictures this season. Because of the warm weather we had this winter so far the eagles stayed up north. I hope I can join him this weekend and have a chance to make a few clicks.
In the meanwhile I'm restructuring my archive, a task I had on my to-do-list for this winter. While going step by step through all my old shooting sessions I rediscover some files that, at least I believe, deserve it to see the light of the day. This one is from February 2010 and was made during my first time shooting Bald Eagles at dam #14 in Le Claire. I look forward to be there again… :-)
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is one out of six species of the woodpecker family we have seen here so far around our house. Tall old trees and quite a bit of dead wood around here provide an ideal habitat for the woodpeckers. Especially in the winter they come close to the house and to the feeders but they are very shy. They fly away as soon someone opens a door or a window. With other words, it is hard to make a good picture of them from a close distance.
This picture of this female Red-bellied Woodpecker was made through the glass of our balcony door today. I knew I would have missed this opportunity if I had tried to open the door just even slightly. It may soften the image a little but I don't think the result is too bad. I'm glad I made the click...
Wishing all of you a wonderful and creative New Year 2012!
Thank you for all your words of encouragement and critique in 2011. Thank you also for taking the time to view my images and read the little stories about my trials to capture the wonders of nature.
Ich wünsche Euch allen ein wundervolles und kreatives neues Jahr 2012!
Danke für eure Worte des Zuspruchs und Kritik im alten Jahr. Danke auch einfach nur dafür, dass ihr euch die Zeit nehmt meine Fotos anzusehen und die kleinen Geschichten über meine Versuche die Wunder der Natur im Bild festzuhalten zu lesen.
As you can see, we still don't have any real winter weather with snow here in Iowa this year and the colors in the landscape are not really exciting. At least the clouds that were moving in last Monday created an interesting looking sky and this is reason enough for me to frame a landscape photo. I really took time to think about this image when I composed it in my viewfinder and I knew I would go for black & white in post processing.
As promised I will tell you a little more about my photo shoot last Monday. A little further south from the Green Island Wetlands, on an island in the Mississippi River, lies the town of Sabula, Iowa. There is always a good chance to see some eagles, gulls, geese, or ducks in this area. The water that is not directly effected by the current of the big river was frozen over, despite the still unusual mild weather we have. The ice in the Sabula marina was thin but gave some Ring-billed Gulls a chance to rest and enjoy the warmth of the late afternoon sun. The first photo is my favorite of the three in this post. I was happy to get this shot of the gull during take off. The gulls allowed me to practice my panning technique and they are a great subject because there is always one that is on the move.
Dark clouds moved in and were reflected by the ice, as you can see in the two other images. The low sun, coming already from underneath the clouds, made for absolute killer light. These are the moments I'm looking for, even if I have to wait a whole day. Time well spent in the Great Outdoors….!
I had Monday still off from work and used the beautiful weather to check out what's going on in the Green Island Wetlands along the Mississippi at this time of the year. As I wrote often before, this area is my favorite place to study wildlife and make pictures of the animals that live in this habitat or just stop there during migration. We have the mildest winter so far since we live in this area and I was wondering how that may play a role about what animals are present. The first thing I saw, after going through the little village of Green Island and entering the wetland area, was this beautiful Common Muskrat. It was sitting on the thin ice at one of the few open water spots. It was chewing on some greens and used its front legs to get something to eat out of the water. This picture was of course taken before the muskrat went into the water diving for more food and you can really see how beautiful its winter fur looks. And this leads me right to the things I didn't enjoy to see yesterday. It is trapping season and I saw quite a few people checking their traps. Can you blame me if I grinned any time I saw someone returning empty handed to their cars? :-))
I shot from my "mobile blind", which is of course my car. It's not that I'm too lazy to get out of my car but many of the animals don't seem to bother if a car stops nearby. As soon you open the door they take off and your chance for making the image is gone. I usually shut off the engine. This is not only better for the environment, and of course my wallet (I sat in this spot for almost twenty minutes), but it also prevents vibrations coming from the engine being conveyed to the camera. The muskrat was pretty cooperative and stopped chewing once in a while. The pictures became blurry any time I missed the peak of action.
What other animals did I see? Not very many, a couple Bald Eagles, not within shooting range, and a few gulls. After two hours I moved on to Sabula, the little town on an island in the Mississippi. But this is another story for later this week...
Wishing all of you a Very Merry Christmas!
