Schneegestöber and winter light

 

Joan and I went again up to Door County, the peninsula in the northwest corner of Lake Michigan, for Thanksgiving weekend. With us came the snow and made for a beautiful white Thanksgiving. We used the holiday for a hike in the snow along the shore of the Green Bay. The weather changed constantly from plain gray sky to heavy snow showers, to short sun light breaks, and back to clouds. There were times when the camera needed to stay in the bag because of too much snow falling from the trees. And then suddenly we had some moments where the sun sent some light through the clouds and the snow seemed to glow. It was just nice to be outside and try to catch the mood of weather and landscape.

We were already at Eagle Bluff Lighthouse on Thanksgiving last year. I thought I had a decent photo already but I love today’s quality of light on the lighthouse and snow much better. Have a look on last year’s image by clicking on the link HERE and build your own opinion.

Before we went back to our cozy little cabin, where Joan finally prepared a wonderful turkey dinner, we went to Bailey Harbor on the east side of the peninsula. A nice band of clouds and the last light of the sun made for some drama over Bailey Harbor Light in the background. The clicks were made quickly, the dinner was calling… ;-)

Wonderful foggy day

 

My last full day in Germany was a typical gray November day with fog and a little rain but nevertheless a very wonderful one. In our state of Saxony it was a holiday and my best friends had invited me to participate in a hiking trip through the Lausitzer Bergland, the mountains south of my hometown Bautzen. We were a group of twelve people and beside some great exercise we enjoyed wonderful conversation and awesome food at the end of the tour. The fog was hiding the landscape most of the day but when we stopped at an old granite quarry (the area is famous for its granite) I saw the potential for a good click.

Thank you to Gabriela, Claus, Petra, Lutz, Martina, Götz, Annerose, Uwe, Ecki, Micha, and my son Andre for making this a very special day!!

Hiking in Saxon Switzerland National Park

 

Just want to say hi to all friends and followers of my blog. I’m still in Germany and had for the first time a chance to make some clicks in good light. My son Andre and I went on a hiking trip into the mountains and rocks of Saxon Switzerland (German: Sächsische Schweiz), one of the most beautiful areas in Germany and only an hour and a half away from my hometown Bautzen. The picture shows one of the most iconic rock formations “Bastei”. Between my shooting location and the rocks on the other side, down in the valley, lies the Elbe River that flows towards Dresden, the capitol of our state of Saxony. A big part of this area belongs to the only National Park in the State of Saxony, Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz. I hope you enjoy.

Fine Art Gallery - "Sea Pride"

 

I knew immediately when we saw the “Sea Pride” sitting on the beach of Mackerel Cove, a bay on Bailey Island in Maine, that this was maybe a good image for Black & White. I made a few clicks but the clouds didn’t cooperate and were just a gray soup in the background. But the wind moved them around after a while and suddenly they opened up and let the blue sky shine through. This makes for a much more dramatic shot. I love the lines of this lobster boat and the image leaves room for speculation about the story why this boat was on the beach at the end of the bay and not in the water.

This might be my last post for a while. Tomorrow morning I’m flying to Germany for a family event and some business as well. I might be able to make some clicks but I’m not so sure about if there will be time to write a blog post… I’ll try, so please stay tuned! :-)

Let the details tell the visual story

 

We all get overwhelmed sometimes by the great “postcard views” or focus only on the iconic elements a particular shooting location has to offer. It is easy to overlook the details that surround a great place. Sometimes the light that hits those details has a  particular quality that makes them stand out and tell a visual story.

We have visited many of the lobster wharfs along the Maine coast. Beside eating there fresh lobster big time, we found countless opportunities to make the click. The detail shots I show you today are from different locations and different times of the day. There are some early morning and late evening shots and a couple were made completely in the shade. But they all got some quality light that brings the colors to life or pronounces the shape and suddenly a rough working place like a lobster wharf reveals a lot of beauty…

Fall colors 2013 - last call

 

Last weekend was probably the last chance to make some images that tell the story about fall and its colors here in Eastern Iowa. Despite some night frost many Sugar Maples had still a few leaves left but they came down quickly as the wind blew quite a bit this weekend.

As I wrote a couple weeks ago, I try to isolate the leaves from the background to make the colors pop and draw the eye right to the subject. Exposure compensation by about one stop helps to suppress elements in the picture that would otherwise just take the attention away. There is no reason that every crack in the rocks or rotten leave on the ground needs to have detail. Yes, I know, high dynamic range is ubiquitous but I believe this type of image just needs the opposite. Even if you just use Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW, leave the shadow slider in it’s parking position or maybe even darken the shadows. Here I applied in addition a dark vignette in Adobe Lightroom to keep the eye away from the edges of the photo.

Taking time and looking around while wandering along the edge of the timber leads to more interesting subjects that can be photographed only in fall in their particular state. This Common Milkweed had opened and exposed its many overlapping seeds, each with a tuft of silky hairs. I hope you enjoy.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse - a job for the graduated ND filter

 

I wrote in my post from October 16, 2013 that I may show more from Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Maine. It is such a magic place that allows to shoot from many different angles during sunrise and sunset. Joan and I had the place well inspected the evening before and so I knew exactly where I wanted to place my tripod for this image the next morning. Maine is in clear weather every day the first state that is hit by the morning sun in the United States. Not that it really matters but it was kind of interesting to think about that everybody at home in Iowa was still in the dark of the night, while we enjoyed the warmth of the first sun rays touching the continent. The layered rocks in the foreground are a wonderful mix of metamorphic and igneous rocks, with veins of quartz, and slabs of schist and gneiss.

I used a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter for the photo. This allows me to keep your eye on the lighthouse or maybe let it wander over the rocks in the foreground. The Schneider Optic 77 mm ND.9 SE filter became a very useful accessory during our journey along the Maine coast. I like the optical quality of this piece of glass much better than my older Cokin ND filters. They are made out of resin, which is not a problem, but I always had the feeling that they also shift the colors slightly. Finally, very little adjustments had to be made in Camera RAW for this image and this is how I want to go with my landscape and wildlife photography.

Two different reasons

 

I’m not really actual with my blog at the moment. I was down in Houston, Texas for a business trip this week, with no really opportunity to shoot anything interesting, except for some clouds during take-off. So, here are a couple images still from last weekend.

We had some pretty cold nights last week and the water in the bird bath was frozen solid in the morning. I changed that quickly because birds are drawn to the water. If you like to start with some bird photography, go and buy a bird bath. This is a tip I learned from other photographers and I just know it works.

We have a second one on the other side of the house that can be heated and this will serve our feathered friends even during the coldest days here in Iowa. An old dead cedar tree, erected right beside the bird bath in the front yard, is very often used  by the birds as a perch before they actually go down to the water bowl.

Why do I show these two particular photos? The first one is a female Yellow-rumped Warbler. I have seen them for the first time this spring when they migrated north. If you use the search field in the side bar on the left and search for “Yellow-rumped Warbler” you can find my previous posts about this magnificent bird. The picture today tells the story that they are obviously on their way back to the South where they will spend the winter. But why the picture of the American Robin, a bird that is abundant not just here in Eastern Iowa? It is the light, awesome soft natural light from the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds, that made me push the shutter release button…

Back to the only stormy day

 

I like to come back to the only stormy day we had up in Maine at Acadia National Park. The rocky coast between Otter Cliff and Thunder Hole is a great place to watch the surf on a day like this. I used my polarizer in front of the lens and closed down the aperture to f/16 in order to extend the exposure time to 1/3 s. I know, you can make the water even more silky by using a neutral density filter but I just liked to keep some of the dynamic in the movement of the waves. I do have several ND filters in my bag but I was happy with the results and in particular with this image. It was actually the last shot I made after almost two hours of having a blast on these cliffs. It was gray most of the time but the light just picked up some quality for a few minutes at the end of the day. I hope you enjoy.

Nature clicks #187 - Carolina Wren

 

After the first nights with some frost the leaves fall fast. It becomes easier again to spot birds in the trees and bushes. A couple days ago I saw already two Carolina Wrens hopping around on our porch and in the flower bed of the front yard. To my surprise I got one of them in front of my lens today. I checked my old records and the only time we saw them before was in January or February when they showed up at our bird feeders. With other words, these are my first "non-feeder" shots of this little wren. As you may remember its cousin, the House Wren, raises their offspring every year in our yard and I have shown many pictures about them here in the blog before.

We are here at the northern edge of the Carolina Wren's breeding grounds. They are nonmigratory birds but their range expands north if the winters are mild. I'll keep my eyes open this weekend and hope to see them again and maybe can make another click or two...