Prairie Afternoon

I went out to the prairie for the first time in a couple weeks looking for insects to film.It was a good afternoon for dragonflies and butterflies. This short piece gives you an idea of what the afternoon looked and sounded like.

Technical: GoPro for time lapse, a variety of slow motion speeds to show the dragonfly in action. Natural sound taken from in camera microphone.

Winter Wind

 

I usually think of the winter wind and how it will limit my outdoor time. Walking in the windswept prairie I think of its direction and how to keep it from watering my eyes,burning my face, and taking my breath away. There is a rhythm to it and watching prairie grass move with it can be mesmerizing, if you are dressed for it.

Monarch Morning

I have a lucky break this summer capturing the monarch wake up routine. They perch on tall prairie plants, in this case a water hemlock, and are covered with dew until it burns off. As there temperature rises they begin to move in preparation for flight. Film is shown in real time (no slow motion), natural sounds, and background music by hartwigmedia.com. The final warm up took almost 5 minutes allowing a variety of camera angles.

Monarchs on a Stick

I had to share this shot in honor of the last weekend of the Minnesota State Fair. I have not attended it in at least a decade but always marvel at what is placed on a stick to eat. While these monarchs are safe from consumption, I like the analogy. 

Morning Bumblebee

This is another image from the foggy morning earlier in the week. A close up filter was used in front of the wide angle lens putting the lens about 3 inches from the flower. I don't use this technique very often but every now and then it helps get the message across.

September Morning

Mornings are changing. The yellows of August are fading. This is one of my favorite times of the year for prairie photography. It's much easier to get up for sunrise and the morning dew covered adds a special touch to images.

Technical: HDR using Lightroom 6.  In this image the light area at the junction is ground fog. If you want to upgrade to 6 but not interested in the creative cloud a perpetual license is available on the Adobe website. Click the upgrade button after entering the purchase page.

Heading South

The monarch migration has moved on. This morning there were about a dozen butterflies on the prairie where there were 3-4 dozen yesterday morning. 

Technical: Shot against a cloudy sky, White slider at 100 on Lightroom.

Dead or Alive?

When I saw this monarch I wondered if it had been caught in a web or the web was built around it. A leg moved for a second and my question was answered. The chilly nights bring these butterflies to a standstill and make for great photo opportunities before they warm up in the morning sun.

Technical: Canon 7D and 100 mm macro.

Monarch Migration

The monarch butterflies are moving through southern Minnesota. It has been a few years since I have seen the numbers floating in the air like this year. This is a completely unscientific observation which may be due to me being on the prairie at the perfect time. Yesterday's morning fog and dew made it for prairie photography. Why am I using black and white instead of traditional color image? This rendition seems more "historical"  given the current plight of the monarch butterfly as a species.

Technical: frame from Canon 7D video, Infrared filter used in Lightroom 6

Iphone, Instagrams, & Nature

Can an iPhone6 capture an image your brain sees? That's the question I have been exploring since upgrading an old iPhone. Then what do you do with the images?  There are real challenges to getting a good iPhone image.  The stock camera app is weak for someone spoiled by DSLR settings, a much better app is Pro Camera which has full DSLR features for tweaking WB, exposure, and focus. It also has a good enhancing  platform. Of course, you can always use Lightroom to enhance your images. However, unless you go directly from the phone it is a lot of work to go to Lightroom and then back to your phone to get the images into Instagram.

Technical: Instagram only accepts square images. Image on left shot with fill flash. On the right human diffuser used on a sunny afternoon.

Bottomline: Share nature your images of nature any way you can. It is disappearing from the hearts and minds of too many people.

Winter Red

Man its tough finding color on the prairie in January! Warming to 7000K helped with the grasses but I was looking for something more vibrant. I found these rose hips and with carefully burrowing into the snow I could minimize the background distractions. The red was slightly enhanced in Lightroom but comes primarily from fill flash.

Success!

I visited the mourning dove nest for the first time in a couple weeks and was greeted by a fluttering of wings as the adult noisily left. I took a couple shots of the motionless chicks and left. This is the pair before hatching.

Mourning Dove Nest

I am always worried when I flush a bird off its nest. This mourning dove nest was found by accident while roamng the prairie. The photog in me needs to take a couple shots so I did and moved on. A couple days later I returned to check and flushed the bird again. It is still on the nest so I'm satisfied the eggs will progress naturally.

Prairie Curves

I was out in the prairie a few days ago on a windblown, overcast afternoon. I thought I  saw birds in flight when looking at these curved blades of grass. Is this a sign of cabin fever?

Sweet Light

 The  winter afternoon light and eastern sky were captured while doing yoga positions in the snow on snowshoes.

Above zero

There is something about the number zero. It is not really that much different than +5 or -5 but the psychological impact is there and it has kept me indoors for too long. Yesterday afternoon the temperature was in the single digits so I was out the door roaming the prairie.

The End of Summer

I went looking for the last wildflowers of the season yesterday and found some old friends at their peak. With the cold, wet spring most of the flowers have been later than normal.  These are blooming at predicted time and more abundant than past years. The downy gentian ends the season of prairie flowers. It has been a good summer on the prairie.  Woodland colors are around the corner.

Prairie Color

As the maples and aspen turn brilliant prairie colors become subtle, a nice balance to the brilliance of autumn leaves.

Prairie Transition

A quiet summer morning on the prairie, cool and little breeze, with a light dew.  The flowering blue stem and this open swamp milkweed pod are a reminder of the passing summer.

Swamp Milkweed

I am fascinated by the varieties of milkweed and the number of insects that can be seen feeding on it.  Photographed at Tauer Prairie SNA, Brown County, MN.