No airplanes but great light

A couple more shots from yesterday's visit at the Dubuque Airport. While waiting for the return of the "war birds" not much happened, except for the landing of a small jet. And then the light changed and it became really golden and warm . Still no airplanes in sight and the best I could do was to snap a few "Iowa landscape pictures". All what it needs is a farm and some dark clouds in the background, a corn field in the foreground, some lines that keep things together, and did I mention great light?... ;-)

Lack of practice

Today's blog post of my photographer friend Dave Updegraff reminded me that the air show in Oshkosh next week is just right around the corner. That means for us here in the area around Dubuque we may have a chance to watch some of the airplanes at the Dubuque, Iowa airport. They use this airport as a base for their practice before the big event.

Murphy's law was applied again this afternoon. During my first hour in the late afternoon it was very busy, with lots of take offs and landings, but the light was very dull. Later the clouds thinned out and we got some great light but there wasn't as much action anymore.

I can tell my panning skills need some refinement because I didn't have much practice recently. I trashed much more images than usual because they were out of focus (It would be great if the air show would be right after the Bald Eagle season in the winter..., just kidding... ;-)  ).

All of my pictures from today have a big flaw. The props look like they would stand still. This is due to the fact that I was simply not able to handhold the camera at 1/60s while panning, which is necessary to show the motion of the prop. I tried hard but lack of practice can't be made up within two hours. The good thing is that today's practice may help my wildlife photography in the near future. That's one of the reasons I gave it a try today...

Nature clicks #115 - Brown-spotted Yellow-wing

The best way to escape the heat here in Iowa is to spend time on the water. Yesterday my younger sister, who is here for a visit at the moment, and I went for another kayak tour over to Wisconsin. I introduced her to Twin Lake in Governor Dodge State Park, a place I have written about before here in this blog. For the first time I took my camera into the kayak. It's still a little scary to me but everything went well. I just took the SIGMA 150/f2.8 with the 1.4 teleconverter attached into the boat. I wanted to focus on insects this time but this combination gave me the range for a possible bird shot as well. There is an abundance of dragonflies along the shore of this beautiful lake at the moment. The Brown-spotted Yellow-wing was one of them and I'm happy to show you this interesting creature again here in my blog. Stay cool!

Being a tour guide

We have a lovely visitor here at the moment. My little sister visits us on her way back to Germany. She lived in Australia for the last eighteen months and took the route through the United States on her way back. Needless to say that we proudly show her Dubuque and the landscape along the Mississippi River here. Being a "tour guide" gives me always a chance to scout new photo opportunities and to look for interesting subjects. While waiting for my sister outside an art gallery on Bluff Street in Dubuque, IA today, these two doors caught my attention. I had only the Nikkor 24-120/f4 with me, which is not really first choice for architecture photography of any kind. It is a sharp lens but as with many wide zoom lenses lens distortion can't be neglected. It took only little efforts to correct this in Photoshop.

Nature clicks #114 - Giant Swallowtail

It looks like I have neglected my "home turf" here in Eastern Iowa recently. But what can I do, business requires to travel a lot at the moment and unfortunately there wasn't much time even to think about shooting during the last couple weeks. I'm home for the holiday and in our yard is always something flying around. I have hundreds of pictures of the Giant Swallowtail on my hard drive but that doesn't mean some new ones can't be made, and as you probably know I can't resist if the light is inviting me... ;-)  The Purple Coneflowers always attract butterflies and it isn't difficult to find one. Only the horrible heat sets the limits for me how long a shooting lasts. It wasn't very long today...

Dealing with drought

I stopped in the Green Island Wetlands on my way back from Indianapolis yesterday. It looks kind of sad right now. The water level is at the lowest I have ever seen it. Parts of the marsh land is almost dry, at least on the surface. Even in a state like this it is still feeding ground for birds and other animals. There were lots of young Killdeer searching for food. I don't know if any of them came out of the eggs I took a picture of a while ago (click here to see it), but it is nice to see that a new generation is growing up.

Always good for a photo is the Great Egret. They are not as shy as the Great Blue Herons that are competing for the food in the same territory. It is not so difficult to focus on the egret because of the good contrast they provide. With a big bird, like the Great Egret, I still try to put one of the autofocus sensors on its eye. This is not always possible with smaller or dark birds. In this matter I try to use the chest, which is usual on the same focal plane as the eye. Sometimes easier said than done... ;-)  Have a nice weekend!

Avocets again (because I love them)

Just a quick post today. I'm on the road again with no time to focus on photography so far. Instead I like to show you another photo of the American Avocets. Can you tell that I really like these birds? I think they are really pretty. This image is from the morning shooting on Antelope Island ten days ago. I wished light would always be like this... ;-)

Nature clicks #113 - Western Kingbird

I still like to write a little about my recent visit to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. The sun was only three hours away from its highest point that day when I discovered a Western Kingbird (another first sighting for me). It was sitting on a traffic sign and used it as a perch for hunting insects. As you can see very succesfully.

Any time if I'm in doubt about a species or want to confirm the encounters I make in Utah I go to Ron Dudley's blog "Feathered Photography". Ron is a retired teacher and has excellent knowledge about birds and critters and their behaviors. His photography is outstanding and the observations he has documented in his blog are very interesting. And of course, I found the Western Kingbird in his blog. The same was true for the Lark Sparrow in my last post. Ron spends a lot of time on this island and I hope one of these days, when business brings me back to Utah, I'll have a chance to meet him.

Nature clicks #112 - Lark Sparrow

 

If there is an abundance of wildlife in a particular location it is sometimes easy to forget the smaller birds and critters. It was very windy every day during my recent trip to Antelope Island and I didn't see many small birds anyway. This Lark Sparrow was a first sighting for me and so I made a few clicks, even if the bird was actually too far away for a good detail shot. This photo was sharp enough to consider a crop, and yes, I cropped it quite a bit. The result is an environmental portrait, good enough to show here and report about it, but too small for a large size print. Well, next time... ;-)

Nature clicks #111 - Black-necked Stilt

I only had one minute to work with a second bird of the Avocet and Stilt family before it flew away. My location was everything but good when I discovered two wonderful Black-necked Stilts right in front of me. I was slightly above the water level and tried actually to approach some gulls on a bank in the Great Salt Lake. The higher elevation allowed only to shoot from above and this is not an interesting shooting position for most animals. Ok, it was my first sighting of the stilt and at least I have now a few images in the "books". It is a beautiful bird and the next time I go to the Great Salt Lake I'll try to find them again and make the photo I have in mind.

I use the software iBird PRO on my iphone for identification and comparison of birds while I'm in the field. This eliminates the need to carry any books with me while traveling. There are always some interesting facts to learn and for the Black-necked Stilt it says that they have the second-longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any bird, exceeded only by flamingos.