Nature clicks #190 - Mourning Dove

 

My job kept me at the desk almost the whole week but I couldn’t resist to grab the camera and make this photo out of the window in my home office. This Mourning Dove enjoyed a few warm rays of the sun on a branch across the yard at the edge of our timber. This is as close as I can get without cropping the heck out of the photo, something I try more and more to refrain from in my wildlife photography. This one is nevertheless slightly cropped in order to make the borders a little less busy.

Why will this photo not make it into my galleries, even if it is sharp and the light is really lovely? Well, it is the background that sucks. It is way too busy. You may also notice that a branch comes right out of the bird’s head. Shooting from a window does not leave much room for a different position. It is the hint of warm light in combination with the cold snow in the background that tells a story about survival in the winter here in Iowa. It is the visual story telling that I saw in this scene and that made me grab the camera and make the click. If this would be a bird I have never photographed before, I would probably introduce it in my Iowa wildlife gallery. But we have the Mourning Doves here all the time and the picture that will replace the existing one has to be better in any way.

Snow patterns

 

While here in Eastern Iowa the mild temperatures took care for some of the snow we had on the ground, a fresh layer of the white stuff covered the landscape up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It was my traditional ice fishing weekend with friends and as always I took the camera with me. The fishing was good this year but a strong overcast made for gray snow most of the time. Nevertheless, there were some brief moments when the sun was covered only by a thin layer of clouds, creating at least some luminosity.

The patterns of snow on the trees were wonderful and I just tried to integrate them in my compositions. The deer tracks in the snow that covers the ice on Popple River are a different kind of pattern but they add to the story about a nice winter day in a great landscape.

Fine Art Gallery - "After the rain"

 

Who says I have to show my actual work here in the blog any time I post something? ;-)  Yes, I made some new bird images during the extreme cold weather we have here since a few days but today I liked to browse through my archive and dig out some “unfinished business”. This photo was made in September 2012 in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a rainy and windy day but the views were stunning and the dynamic of the clouds during and after the rain showers was unbeatable.

2013 – Looking back, part 6

 

Without any doubt our vacation trip to the coast of Maine in October was something I really have looked forward to. It is a wonderful landscape with many facets and endless opportunities for photography. I have loved boats and harbors since I was a little boy. Watching the lobster boats going out or coming back from a catch and all the busy activities in a wharf still fascinate me. Getting up early or staying late in the evening is the key for catching the boats in best light.

Many of the lobster boats got very “colorful” names by their owners. I talked to this lobster man after he landed his catch. I told him I liked the name of his boat “JUST BITCHIN”. He said that it was his two sons who told him to name it this way, because that’s what he is doing all the time, “just bitchin”… I thought that was a funny little story, worth to be told here in the blog.

2013 – Looking back, part 5

 

The key for wildlife photography in my opinion is getting close to your subject. This is quite often easier said than done. If you followed my attempts over the years to get close to some Sandhill Cranes you know what I’m talking about. Yep, I got them, but almost every picture was cropped because these very shy birds like to keep a distance between themselves and the avid photographer. The breakthrough came in 2013, when I used a kayak and a lot of time to approach the cranes in the backwaters of the Mississippi River, not far from home. The cranes that stay here during the summer come back to their resting places for the night usually after sunset. Well, that fits my working schedule pretty good but shooting a 500mm lens from a kayak in low light bares a challenge that isn't that easy to overcome.

The images of wild Sandhill Cranes were an accomplishment that I’m very happy about because they were made from a close distance. I love those birds and you can bet that adrenaline rushed through my veins any time I was able to press the shutter release… (see my posts about the Sandhill Cranes in 2013 by clicking HERE and HERE).

2013 – Looking back, part 4

 

I hope you don’t mind if the retrospect of 2013 goes for a few more posts into the new year. I know, the world turns fast but I like to share with you what got accomplished in 2013 and try to determine where I like to head with my photography endeavors.

This image was made in June of last year, and it is just one of many photos made that day. It was the first time that I had the feeling to come a little closer to virtual story telling in my wildlife photography (see the original post from June 2013 by clicking HERE). What a blast it was to watch the American White Pelicans in their collective effort of catching fish in the Mississippi River. I have never seen this before with so many pelicans doing it together (20 - 25 birds). Another reason why this session at the river was important for me is the fact that I didn’t have to crop most images. Get it right in camera is always the goal but I still can’t make this claim for all my photos I show here in the blog. Why is this important? Well, try to make an 18” x 12” print (and I don’t call this a big print!) with a photo that got cropped by 30 - 50%. The quality is just not acceptable because the lack of detail. Most may not see this in a photo with 900 pixels at the long side, like they are downsized here for the blog, but the hour of truth arrives after revealing the prints made from a heavily cropped image. “I haven’t cropped much!” is definitely something I like to say at the end of 2014… :-)

New Year Wish

 

The New Year started the same way as the old one ended, with lots of snow coming down and cold temperatures. I had a technical glitch with some software yesterday, so this post is actually a day late. I like to thank all of you who followed my blog in 2013 or just stopped here once in a while. Thank you for your encouragement, your comments, and your “Likes” at Facebook or in my other galleries. I’m happy you are out there and inspire me to keep writing this blog. Our wildlife and environment needs utmost attention in a world of unlimited exploitation of resources and I hope this blog can still create some awareness for the beauty that is out there and that needs our protection. Joan and I wish all of you a wonderful year 2014.

2013 - Looking back, part 3

 

One of the goals I had set for myself for this year was to work on my landscape photography and try to make some improvements. Sometimes life gets in the way and it wasn’t really until September before I was able to pursue my goal more seriously. No, it wasn’t that I didn’t do anything before September, and my blog may proof this, but the majority of the time behind the lens was dedicated to wildlife photography.

However, the image above was made the weekend of Easter in late March near Lost Island Lake here in Iowa. What I like about it, is the presence of a great sky above this small strip of prairie-like grass. There isn’t much prairie left in the Midwest but the image fires up my imagination how it must have been before this land was taken by the settlers. There isn’t really a subject in the image except for the sky. The group of trees? No, the trees are more like a rest point for the eye. The eye wants to go to this sky and then makes you want to walk over this ridge and see some bisons roaming … just kidding… ;-)

What I like about this photo is its simplicity and drama in a landscape that is not famous for landscape photography. I’m the only one who needs to like the image but maybe you can comprehend my thoughts…

2013 - Looking back, part 2

 

I can’t let my annual review go by without showing you a photo of a Bald Eagle. These magnificent raptors are here in Iowa all year long, but during the winter, when the Mississippi is frozen, they come down from Minnesota and Canada in big numbers.

I didn’t even have to browse through my archive and look for photos that were made earlier this year during the last winter. These two images are from today. The weather conditions, and more important the light, were just right for going after the eagles today. I counted about twenty birds at the lock and dam #11 in Dubuque. Twenty five miles south in Bellevue, at lock #12, I found the same situation. I enjoyed watching the Bald Eagles and of course, I wasn’t the only one who tried to make a photo of these wonderful birds.

This eagle is about to become an adult. It takes four years before they loose the white mottling on their feathers and develop the pure white neck and tail.

2013 - Looking back, part 1

 

The year is coming to an end soon and it is the time to review and analyze what went wrong and where some progress was made with my photography. I was a lot out in the field for some wildlife photography, and if you followed my blog through the year you know that there were some great moments. The best day by far was May 4, 2013. I encountered six different species of warblers that day and four of them were first sightings for me. Not all photos were good enough for being published in the blog but just watching a new bird is a wonderful experience.

My choice for today’s post are two images of the male Yellow-rumped Warbler that were made down at the Mississippi River at Mud Lake Park.