Old Faithful

I can get caught up in getting an image with a clear subject but one that doesn't tell a story. The story that is the real reason I took these shots. The second image requires the viewer to think for a second about what is in the rest of the shot, sometimes it is what is missing from the shot. Enjoy!

 

Yellowstone Review

This was my first early November trip to Yellowstone. The usual animals were visible: bison, coyotes, and migrating elk. One of the perks of volunteering is access into the interior when the roads close to visitors in November.  Consequently we were the only ones at Old Faithful during an eruption. The sound amid the surrounding quiet was unforgettable.

Some memories:

 

Technical: Recorded and edited on an iPhone 8

Tamarack Gold

This tamarack grove was in full display at Crex Meadows on an early morning last week. The cranes were flying out of the Refuge as they have for decades so I decided to explore other photo opportunities. The sun had just risen and the air was calm, perfect flying conditions.

Autumn Color

Increasingly I am shooting video with my iPhone. It is convenient to both capture and edit on one device without needing to transferring to the computer. the phone has definite limitations with primarily a wide angle focal length. It still requires a tripod and microphone for better capture.  Another tool to record beauty in the natural world.

Technical: It does not have the quality for a full screen view which is a function of the Blogger downsizing the file size.

Badlands Snow

 
It has been awhile since my last post, it seems the more time I'm out the less time I have to write. I recently went through Badlands NP after a light snowfall. This was the first time in the park with snow and the textures popped. By the time I was through the park most of it had melted, I can't wait to get back.

Instagram is currently my primary sharing outlet, usually with a couple posts each week. I can be found: @dale_bohlke

Technical: 3 image panorama

Catching the Wave

I spent mornings last weekend along the Lake Superior shore. Sunday was fogged in so I concentrated on wave activity trying to wait until later in the wave to catch action a different phase of wave motion. A relatively slow shutter speed (1/6 second) preserved some motion. Fall color is yet to come but the lake is always there.

Prairie Excitement

The prairie is sky and grass, perhaps colorful flowers if you are there at the right time. How do you make a place visually exciting when you see a peacefulness and respite from the chaos of city life? This drone project is honing my "sense of place" awareness by answering that question in twelve different Scientific and Natural Areas across Minnesota. Four of twelve have been filmed, eight to go.

Worth the hike

This 3.6 billion year old rock is a long walk from the road. Once or twice a year I make the long, hot trek in to look for blooming prickly pear cactus. A few weeks ago I applied for a drone permit from the Scientific and Natural Area Program and the stipulation of the permit is to make one minute videos of 12 selected SNAs.  Gneiss Outcrops is on the list so the trip was worthwhile even though I missed the cactus bloom again.

Technical: Mavic Pro Platinum with 4 stop ND polarizing filter. Edit in Final Cut. Final edit aided by the insightful eyes of daughter Elizabeth.

Athabasca Falls

I'm still savoring the trip to Jasper National Park. The smoke was bad but it wasn't enough to spoil the visit. The park seems so pristine and wild. Athabasca Falls is just one example of its the wildness.

One camera does it all, almost.

We recently returned from Jasper National Park. I brought a full array of DSLR lenses along but only used one camera for all of the non-wildlife images: an iPhone8. With its incredible versatility the iPhone8 took all but one image. It even captured a waterfall in blur. I'm sold on it for a travel camera. Now it's up to you to decide which best captures the mood.

Swan Lake Landing

It was a clear, calm summer evening perfect for a little flying. I am amazed at the transition between one of the largest shallow water lakes in America and the intense farming that surrounds it. It is also a good place to get lost while kayaking.

Pennington County Storm

After a long day in Badlands NP my daughter and I decided to try to capture lightning. We drove north of Wall after dinner and watched the sky. It was fun to watch and quite an experiment in camera settings. We finally settled on a shutter speed of about 1-2 seconds to balance the brightness of lightning with the dark sky.

A quiet little park

I'm playing with my daughter's drone and found a small county park to fly in. The trees and water added just enough tension to an already tense experience learning to control the aircraft. Drones are really about flying to an area to photograph or recording en route to an location. At this point photography is second priority, maybe that will change with more experience.

Pioneer Cemetery

A nearby pioneer cemetery was a perfect location to learn drone video techniques. This is a truly team effort in film-making: Angela-equipment manager, Elizabeth-director and film editor, Sandi-managing editor, Dale-cinematographer. Lots to learn but have not mowed any grass or trimmed trees with it yet. Just starting to get out of "auto" in photo/video mode.

Drone Trial

My daughter has let me borrow her drone for a couple weeks. After the initial thought, "I'm too old a dog for new tricks.",  I decided to give it a try. As with all camera gear it is super simple to get a picture but a good photo takes some practice. After an emergency call to her to find out how to turn it on I was ready to go.  My current passion is video so I am learning those features first with some still images thrown in along the way.

Technical: DJI Platinum Mavic Pro, out of the box settings. Edit in FCPX 

Cambria (American) Tradition

Cambria is a tiny unincorporated town in southern Minnesota that has been inhabited for about 8000 years. It has a tradition of celebrating on July 3rd with a town parade, it circles the block twice, and a better than expected fireworks display. If you can't get out tonight this is will give you a chance to see some 4th fireworks this year.

For those who want more:

Technical: Music from iTunes. Produced using the slide show feature on LightRoom.

A Summer Itch

This young bull moose must have been bothered by mosquitoes like the rest of us along the moose pond trail in Grand Teton National Park. His mother would have nothing to do with him as if to say, "Grow up".  It was tempting to go BBC and add the sound of scratching.  Enjoy.

 

Daddy Long Legs

I was wandering in the dark, damp woods and came across this daddy long legs spider on a leaf. As I watched it I noticed the rhythm in its leg movements which led to this short video. 

Technical: High ISO, 16k? 1/125 sec, f8, @60fps. slowed to half speed in FCPX

Growing Mushrooms

I've been exploring the woods in the rain this week, thank goodness for durable cameras. I noticed mushrooms everywhere and decided to try time-lapse again.  Last summer I made my first attempt at mushroom time-lapse and and was not happy with the results. This year I made a few minor adjustments: placing the Go Pro further away from the subject and recording bigger mushrooms being the main adjustments.

Technical: Go Pro @ 1 minute intervals, about 8 1/2 hours duration. Sequenced in LRTimelapse

Minnesota Storm Clouds

I went storm chasing yesterday morning after recently watching some very impressive storm videos on Youtube, the Wyoming tornado in particular. Yesterday's forecast and radar lined up so I went hunting using a GoPro and my 7D.  Rain is an issue that you don't notice when watching the edited clips. Wind can also be a challenge but yesterday was relatively calm, just wet.

 

Grand Teton Icon

 

The Cunningham Ranch view is spectacular but a little tough to shoot. Fill flash is no problem but getting the window square is harder. A short walk out from the cabin is also a great place to watch the clouds.

 

Grand Teton Motion

I usually think of bears or moose when I think of Grand Teton National Park but the smaller creatures caught my attention when I was there last week. 

Technical: All flight scenes were slowed by 50%. Butterflies shot with a Canon 7Dmk2, 24-105 lens, bluebirds with a C100 and 100-400 lens using a 1.4 teleconverter.

Teton Color

We just returned from traveling to Grand Tetons NP and Yellowstone. The Tetons were a first for us, except for a half day visit 30 years ago. Most of the time was spent exploring its back roads but the last evening we watched sunset while waiting for bears to appear. More to follow.

Pelicans Laughing

It's natural to anthropomorphize even the most ugly of birds. Thanks to high speed drive mode I was able to catch these guys in various stages of smiling.

Love those pelicans

I rarely go to the same location at the same time each year but I can't get enough of the pelicans at Lac Qui Parle Dam west of Watson. All the shots are identical, except for the light, so I was practicing with my video set up and waiting for sweet light to do still shots when this bird's landing came along.

Ravens dining

I usually think of ravens as beggars and freeloaders looking for Cheetos from a tourist. On a slow afternoon I watched them and became intrigued with their more natural traits. This pair is dining on an an avocet after one of them prepared the meal by plucking the feathers, kind of looks like me trying to find things in the kitchen.

Dizzy dances at dawn

On a very cold morning in early April  the prairie chickens were busy sparing on the lek at Blue Stem Prairie SNA. One bird kept going in circles in front of the blind andbecame the subject of this short video. Later I checked the MN Prairie Chicken Society FB page learning it has been named "Dizzy" and has been seen on the lek for three years.

Taking Flight (slow motion experiment)

 

This is an experiment in time as much as capturing the geese in flight. Except for the last clip everything was slowed to either half or quarter speed. In most cases the eye accepts half speed as real but quarter speed has very limited uses if the illusion of reality is to be maintained.

Snow Geese Blastoff (uncut)

 

Sometimes a video is needed to share the experience, something I have commented on before. To make the still shot work I think a sense of order must be distilled out of the organized chaos of 600,000 or more birds in flight.

Snow Geese at 16K

I just returned from Loess Bluffs NWR at Mound City, MO. and was surprised to learn yesterday's count was about 750,000 geese. However, the biggest surprise was quality of images shot at an ISO of 16,000, almost literally shots in the dark. I moved back to Canon after an experiment with Sony and this was its shakedown visit. Both shots recorded using auto focus.

ISO 16,000, 1/8 sec @ f5.6

ISO 16,000, 1/60 sec @ f4.0

and then it snowed!

 This weekend I had the opportunity to put a GoPro in the yard and watch the ice melt. With at least 6 inches of new snow I will soon get a chance to fine tune my technique.

Technical: GoPro @ 30 second intervals for 3 hours, auxiliary battery.

Morning Ritual

I made my annual visit to Shakopee last month to see the ducks and swans at Memorial Park, a great way to enjoy a peaceful morning with the birds. While watching I could not help comparing their morning ritual to mine.

Pine Marten and Peanut Butter

Everyone loves peanut butter! I'm sure pine martens prefer a hot lunch but will settle for this when MacDonald's is closed. This was the highlight of my second trip this year to Sax Zim Bog.  The red pail handle is an indication of the chaotic feed placement at this location.

A little backyard fun

You can't win with squirrels at the feeder so why not just enjoy them? This activity was recorded over several days so I could capture the decisive moment with the squirrel jumping onto the feeder. It was easy recording it jumping off, all I had to do was open the door.

Waiting for a handout

I made my yearly visit to Memorial Park in Shakopee yesterday. These swans clearly knew what to expect when I sat down. There was not much activity so I played with the GoPro to get this shot.

Gentle giants

Once of my most memorable animal encounters was a morning stop watching a herd of elephants. These aristocratic animals have a dignity and intelligence that soon becomes obvious when spending just a short time with them. To learn more about them I would suggest watching Bob Poole Films on Vimeo. It is also intimidating to have one check you out in an open Range Rover.

Remembering Rain

Tucked inside a warm house with a blizzard raging outside is a good time to look back at some of last year's footage and try something new.  I did my first Instagram story, nothing fancy, and also found this wet cheetah from Kenya. Hope you are enjoying a real winter storm, the real fun begins tomorrow after I get the snowblower started.

Mule Deer Action

Visiting Badlands National Park to watch the mule deer rut is becoming a yearly event. Most of the behavior is bucks chasing does but occasionally things get real interesting. After watching a small herd for quite awhile I noticed the does had their attention directed to something behind the butte. Eventually I saw what the were watching. The following minute of action took place over about an hour in real time.

Slow Motion at the Feeder

It was a cold, dark day with lots of brown birds at the feeder, a perfect time to play with slow motion.  Black and white was used to reflect the mood. Only the birds seemed to have energy in the weather.

Technical: The video is slowed to 1/4 normal speed with occasional reduction to 10% of normal speed.

I made it through 2017!

It was a fantastic year with more travel and adventure than I ever dreamed possible, and a few good shots along the way. I'm shooting almost all video and during 3 months I did not shoot any stills. Consequently the blog postings are less frequent to allow for video production. Isolated video clips are put on Instagram @dbsnature. I have several plans for 2018 including a volunteer assignment to shoot Gunnison sage grouse, I hope it comes through. The Badlands are winning me over for prairie wildlife and a couple trips are planned. I hope all of your plans and dreams come true in 2018!