Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4
I followed the Mississippi River north to Guttenberg, Iowa today. Temperatures above freezing made the snow pretty slushy but the next blizzard is already on its way. The clouds tell the story of changing weather…
The photo was made from the overlook just south of Guttenberg and you can see that the ice on the main channel of the river is not very solid.
Little Missouri River, North Unit Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
I like if a photo reflects the essence of a particular landscape. This one does it for me.
Have a wonderful weekend!
I really believe that sharing locations is one of the best things photographers, nature lovers, or anybody who goes out into nature, can do to their fellow outdoor enthusiasts. Much of my photography in the Black Hills, and in particular in Custer State Park, has benefit from articles in the BT Journal, the digital magazine about photography, published by famous photographer Moose Peterson an his wife Sharon. In addition many posts in his blog fueled my desire to visit the Black Hills again. http://www.moosepeterson.com/
The photo was made on the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, just east of the Custer State Park landing strip. I have seen amazing photos from Moose Peterson with breathtaking skies from almost the same location. As mentioned before in earlier blog posts, we were beaten with almost blue skies the whole time in the Black Hills but it didn’t stop us to get up before sunrise and stay late until after the sun had set. The trees in the background are a perfect set for any try to capture the light and the sky. The subtle painting of the light on the prairie in front of the trees makes this image special for me. It really tells the story how we have seen Custer State Park in South Dakota for several days during the time between night and day…
Lake Carlos State Park, Minnesota
The chance that we can create a good nature photo increases dramatically if we go to an interesting location. Period! Well, we all know this is not always an option. Sometimes life stands in the way. So should we leave the camera in the bag or even at home any time we think the location is not worth any efforts? Of course not! Watching the light and colors, looking for interesting perspectives, or focussing on details can sometimes lead to a photograph at places that usually cannot compete with Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon.
On our way home from North Dakota last October we camped for one night at Lake Carlos State Park in Minnesota. Not a bad campsite, and at least at the end of the season there were not too many people. But every way I looked around, there wasn’t much I really wanted to photograph. It wasn’t until the sun had disappeared and left us with a nice glow on the shore, that I realized the potential for a shot. There was some “camping and boat clutter” between the trees in the background, which were cloned out for this image. The moon and the last light of the day made all the difference.
Earlier I tried to take some pictures of these Pied-billed Grebes on the lake. At that time the reflections on the water were just to bright and I didn’t get a shot that I liked. Ten minutes after the photo with the moon was shot I saw still the colors of the sky reflected on the water. Suddenly it wasn’t about a detailed shot of the birds anymore, it was just all about color and positioning the silhouettes of the grebes in the frame...
Is there still some story telling in a photo if nothing but a gray overcast with fog, and as a result snow that looks gray, dominate the scene? At least I gave it a try last weekend during our annual ice fishing event with friends up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I was hoping for some great light moments, but they never came this time. One way to suppress the overall gray is to find some colors. The nicely stacked fire wood beside the cabin and a little bit of fresh snow draw the attention away from the gray sky.
In the second image negative space was used to depict the contour of the lake shore. In addition the dark spots of the slushy snow on the ice of Fay Lake tell the story of a gray and relativ warm winter day.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
I hope you had a good start into the new year. May it be a good one for all of you!
For many photographers the period between Christmas and a new year is often time to reflect on the work of the previous twelve months, by naming maybe personal favorites, or by looking back into the archive and finding pictures that may have been overlooked.
I kinda do the latter and open my first blog post in 2016 with an image that has clouds and sky as its subject. This was something I wanted to do more in 2015 and I did. It didn’t always work out the way I thought it would. Sometimes you may come across a great sky but have no foreground or interesting skyline. Other times you think you are in the right place, at the right time, and then the clouds dissolve or the light suddenly becomes crappy. The only way to do it is being out there and try it again and again...
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4
A very chilly morning today after a relative warm Christmas but for the first time this weekend the sun came out and the sky cleared. We are in Cherokee in northwest Iowa and spent the weekend with our family. A daily habit is a walk around Spring Lake, located in a nice park of the city.
The Nikkor 16-35, f/4 was on camera and choosing f/16 created the sunburst effect and depth of field throughout the whole image. The photo doesn’t have a clear subject but the long shadows of the trees on the ice triggered my desire to make this picture.
Missouri River, near Bismarck, North Dakota
The photo was made on our way home, just southwest of Bismarck, the capitol of North Dakota. There are reasons why getting up early in the morning may lead to a desired image. Pitching the tent next to the Missouri River made it a lot easier to be on site before sunrise. A few minutes later a beaver swam down the river. Those are the moments when you realize, being in the right place, at the right time, is not solely due to just having a lucky day…
A few days ago I “bothered” you with a black and white photo from a small part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, called “Canonball Concretions”. I considered to post another picture of this wonderful geological formation sometime. So here it is, color contrast and interesting shapes! Stopping down to f/10 helped to get a decent sharpness for the foreground and the rock walls in the back. Don’t take me wrong, we loved the light on those eroded formations but a few clouds would have made it perfect. As always, we have to work with what is in front of the lens, not what we wish it would be with...
For those of you who like to know more about how the “cannonballs” are created, here is the link that will give you the answers much better than I can do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concretion
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North unit
The grasslands of the Dakotas are not a prime destination if you want to shoot nothing but fall colors. However, any time we saw a Cottonwood or any other tree that had some fall colors we stopped and tried to integrate it in a landscape photo. Nothing tells the story of fall season more powerful than the changing colors of leaves.
South unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Sometimes it needs a different approach to extract a subject from its surroundings. Here it is clearly the cloud that is my subject, but by using a mid-range or wide angle lens this was not obvious. The cloud would have been a small band above the horizon. I zoomed in at 500 mm with the Sigma 50-500, usually my workhorse for wildlife photography, and suddenly the cloud really became the story telling element in the photo. Sure, this photo is about a mood, but without the interesting cloud it would have been just another plain sunset picture.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, @ 16 mm, 1/200s, f/10, ISO 100
Although the moon is in the picture it wasn’t the light source for this image. The setting sun painted the rugged slopes at “Canonball Concretions" in Theodore Roosevelt National Park orange. It sure was a great color contrast with the steel blue sky, and I may show some color photo of this place sometime. I saw this photo in B&W already in my mind while pushing the shutter button, and I like the result...
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density. (source: Wikipedia)
What this classification doesn’t include is the beauty you can find in these landscapes. We spent a big part of our vacation this year in Badlands, in South, and as well in North Dakota. It is easy to get spoiled by some of the more iconic parks here in the United States, but we had some very stunning and almost unexpected moments in the Dakotas. This photo was made one early evening in the North unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Down in the valley is the Little Missouri River, shallow and always very muddy. At this time of the day it became a very essential part of the photo. Walked back to the car with a smile in my face...
Roughlock Falls is in the Little Spear Fish Creek Valley in the Black Hills. It is one of the places that are liked by tourists and you can get close safely to the waterfalls on well built boardwalks and bridges.
A few days ago I posted an article called “Communicating Motion”. Today’s image was made with the same technique, a combination of multiple shots into one image. The camera can do this automatically and the Nikon D750 is able to combine up to three shots. Other, more expensive models, are able to work with up to ten shots. To be honest, I’m very happy with the results. It takes some test shots to find the best exposure compensation. The interesting thing is that no two pictures look alike and that leaves you some room for your creative process. I have photographed waterfalls before, mostly with a neutral density filter in front of the lens for a long exposure time, which creates the silky look of the water. The goal with both techniques is to tell your own story about motion of the water and to reveal the beauty of a waterfall or creek. The advantages of the new way are that you don’t need any filter, the colors seem to look better, and most important you can shoot these kind of pictures even in bright daylight.
I don’t remember that we ever got so much snow in November within a day since Joan and I live here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa Valley. It sure looked pretty in the morning and even later, just before sunset when these photos were made, there was still some snow in the trees.
The farmer who works the small fields along the Little Maquoketa River, was a little late with the harvest of his corn this year. I saw the combine and tractors with trailers Friday morning getting the job done. Well, it was obviously not too late and the people that “plowed” the fields with their snow mobiles just a day later must have thought the same. I know, the sun in this picture is a little “burned out” but I wanted this picture for today’s story. I can promise you it will not end up in my portfolio… 😉!
Down in the valley the Heritage Trail, follows the highway to Dubuque, Iowa. The snowmobilers were obviously very happy about the early start of the winter season and used the trail heavily. The photographer found his pleasure in the light of the evening...
