August Monarchs

 

I spent a few mornings watching monarch butterflies earlier this month. In the past I have always felt the third week of August was peak migration in southern Minnesota. This year it was the end of the first week. I don't know if I just happened to be there or if the change is real. The good news is that I saw more butterflies than I have seen in years.

Sedge Wren

 This little guy has a voice that won't quit. After an early morning songfest it stays low, about knee high in the dense prairie, making it hard to find. The monarchs had left and I was in the mood for filming so this was a subject of opportunity. Road noise and farm sounds were at a minimum allowing natural sounds to be recorded.  Recorded with my go to gear for video: Canon C100 with a 100-400 lens.

Portrait Session

Normally I am not a fan of wildlife portraits. So many of them seem static and the subject seems flat. I made an exception last week while watching a young burrowing owl. It seemed to have a character that was changing almost constantly. 

Prairie Evening

I spent a couple hours on the prairie yesterday with some new found friends and left with a renewed enthusiasm for it. It was a perfect evening: hot, calm, sweet light, and no mosquitoes. Even the clouds cooperated as they developed at sunset.

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.

Storm at the Lek

The blind was reserved 2 months ago, the weather is miserable, and the forecast is for 2-6 inches of snow. Now what? There really wasn't a question of whether to show up or not since the birds would still be there. It was also no problem deciding what to wear - everything! The result was a unique experience to witness how prairie chickens survive on the prairie under some very harsh conditions.

Struggling Pair

I spent a long time with just a couple wood lilies trying to capture the various emotions I was seeing. I fell back on my 10-22 wide angle zoom for most of the images, changing focal length and camera position. I see the pair winning the struggle, stretching above the background competition in this composition.

Technical: red slightly desaturated 

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.

First Snow

The first snow of the season has a different meaning to each of us. For me it is the beginning of a season of simplicity. The jangle of grass stems and twisted leaves will soon be covered leaving a clean palette of white and contrasting lines on the prairie. There is also a peace and tranquility with only sounds of the snow hitting the blades of grass and wildflowers. 

September Dawn

I went out to Cottonwood Prairie last week in hopes of catching early morning dew and ground fog. However, a light breeze and crystal clear skies greeted me. 

Technical: Sky brightness was balanced using both  3 stop and 5 stop graduated neutral filters. I tried to do HDR in Lightroom but did not bracket a wide enough range.

Morning Glow

Prairie color is getting scarce and the morning sun is now giving the best color. It can be rare to see, given recent overcast mornings and high temperatures. I closely watch the forecast and head out for ground fog and golden light if the dew point and morning temperatures are the same. If the wind is quiet an added benefit is dew covered spider webs.

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.

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

Prairie Rose Cafe

I'm continuing my exploration of the prairie using high speed video recording on the iPhone. These small flies were busy one morning last week and tolerated the close up attachment that requires a distance of about an inch for optimum focus. Recorded at 240 fps which means one second of action translates into 8 seconds of video. Now if I could afford a more sophisticated camera that records in high speed. Most cameras limit the shooting time to a few seconds because of the intense onboard computer commitment to process and store that volume of information. The high end cameras have a pre-record feature so you can save the action after it has happened. This is a great feature since it can take several seconds for a camera to transfer the information to a memory card.

Bees & Butterfly Weed

I'm continuing my test of the iPhone for nature photography and videography. This piece was shot using the stock lens at 240 fps, replayed at 30 fps. Audio was also recorded at the time of capture. I used creative license and put the best buzzing at each of the flight times, along with dropping the level of background audio. New lens attachments are being tested and there will be a video available next week.

For those of you who are more interested in still photography I have started using Flickr regularly and can be found at:

Flickr Photostream

As always, just sharing my love of nature.

Enjoy,

Dale

Fireworks mimics Nature?

Am I the only one who thought of this while watching fireworks last night? Perhaps I'm anxious to get out in the prairie while July colors are still there, but then there are always the yellows and purples of August to look forward to.

Technical: iPhone6 capture, Lightroom to sharpen

A Tripod & iPhone

Standing out in the crowd

You can't get much lighter than that. My initial attempts iPhonography were dismal. Of course, it was the quality of the phone's camera. Then I noticed I was ignoring all the principals of photography. Getting back to the basics, a tripod and shooting the light, changed my shots. Technology in the 21st century may have changed but photography is still the same as it has been since the 19th century. Now I just have to remember to turn off the phone when out in the prairie.

Hand of Man

A previous landowner went to considerable effort to create this rock man in the middle of an otherwise featureless prairie, a marked departure from "leave no trace" principles. The marks on the red rock platform are from the last glacier receding. Those marks will remain long after the rock man collapses. The land always survives.

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.

Prairie Trail

Winter is a great time to see animal signs on the prairie. It may a longstanding deer trail or you may find a story in the snow showing recent wildlife activity. Unfortunately the only thing warm about the prairie in the winter is its color. The wind can be brutal!