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.

Swan Salon

This is the last of the swan series taken at Shakopee earlier this month.  The 16 second format of Instagram is a great editing challenge and also a good way to share short videos. If you are having trouble seeing videos here most of the videos on the blog are also on Instagram at: dbsnature on Instagram.

The Real January

A Quiet Winter Morning from Dale Bohlke on Vimeo.

 This video is from a couple weeks ago when it was a really January. The near zero temperature was great for camera work but not so great for my toes. I have bike riding the last few days pretending it is March. Who needs to go south in the winter with weather like this?

Technical: sequences shot on two successive mornings

Winter Wave

This trumpeter swan's winter wave is more exercise than I have gotten recently, at leastt until yesterday's snow. It's nice to have a real winter  even if the shovel is the free weight for boosting upper body strength. There is almost enough to XC ski which is definitely a lot more fun than shoveling.

Technical: Photography is all about time manipulation. When shooting stills it usually is about freeing time. This wing wave is at a quarter normal speed to show the beauty of the fluid motion.

Winter Whites

It would be nice if the winter white was snow but the white birds of winter are a lot more fun to watch than falling snow.  I'm using the birds to practice slow motion techniques and various camera/lens combinations. The car is always nearby for a quick warm up when the toes get icy.

Watchful Eye

I thought Canada geese goslings were eating machines but watching these cygnets put the geese to shame with their blinding speed grabbing and gobbling grass (probably rice) on Crex Meadows. It's no surprise when you think they must be ready to migrate just a few months after hatching. Mother (?) was carefully watching me as the youngsters foraged.

Wait for us

Another caption might be "Hurry Up". Photography is like life in many ways, it is all about perspective and point of view.

A study in contrasts

There were several choices when photographing swans and snow geese. I could have shot the swans against a blue sky as they flew overhead, on the water, or taking off. Actually, I shot all of them but this image tells the story of a previously endangered species doing well as it flies over an over populated concentration of snow geese, a study in contrasts. I'm sure I could find more contrasts if I thought about it a little longer.

Good bye September

September was incredibly busy and early October will maintain that pace. This year I scheduled community education classes in the early fall and bunched them together since there have been cancellations in the past but not so this year. I am currently in a marathon of teaching 5 classes in 8 days.  All REI classes have been running to add to the mix.  I have an ambitious shot list for fall images after the classes are over, we'll see how it goes.