Obviously I’m not in Dubuque at the current time. More about that later. I hope you enjoy some of the images that I’ll be posting over the next few days.
Over the years I have photographed many Blue Herons. But when I saw this guy and he appeared as a silhouette because of the light I had to capture him. I was pretty happy with this image.
Som
I saw this commercial fishing vessel. Although it was not on waters as dangerous as “The Most Deadly Catch” I felt like I had to capture it.
Hope you enjoy these images. More to come so stay tuned. Remember to click on the image to make it larger and to show far more detail.
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination. a “Wildlife Photographer.” I do not study the various species, nor learn their nesting, breeding, eating habits, or their migration time. Much of the time when I photograph a bird (like the one above) I have no idea what they are called. I just love photographing and watching all kinds of wildlife.
So after spending about 15 minutes on the internet I “think” this bird is a Pectoral Sandpiper. But it could just as well be a rooster for all I know. Point is that for me and I’m only speaking for me, I just like to take photographs period.
Remember you can click on the images to make them large and far more detailed.
Now I do know that this is a pair of Canada Geese. So I’m not totally oblivious to the species. I did however use to call more than one goose Canadian Geese, which is wrong and it was pointed out to me in very specific terms. 🙂
For over 20 years I have enjoyed photographing all types of wildlife at the “Duck Pond” including all sorts of geese, pelicans, swans, herons, egrets, eagles, ducks, and assorted smaller birds.
I call it the Duck Pond because several of the locals in Maquoketa refer to it as such. It is really the Hurstville Marsh / Wetlands. It is located by the Hurstville Interpretive Center and is normally filled with lots of water. However at the above image reveals the water levels are very low right now.
Here is a drone video that I shot a few years ago that will give you an idea how big the Marsh is. Oh and by the way if you watch the full video you will also see that I crashed the drone. 😦
I’m not sure what this bird is. He is much smaller than the first bird in this post and much quicker. I probably took a hundred images at burst rate trying to capture this little guy in focus.
Finally this image of what I think are tadpoles. But I’m really not sure. What I do know is that there were thousands of these things swimming by my spot the 30 minutes I was there. So what ever they are there is going to be a whole bunch of soon. 🙂
That’s it for today. Hope to photograph some more stuff in the coming days.
First off I’m not thrilled with any of these images today. I have shot them over the last few weeks and my lack of skill is readily apparent. But since I am going to do my best to post more often I thought I would share this potpourri of images.
I only have about 10,000 images of Canada Geese in my files but when I see one I photograph it for my friend Betty who loves Canada Geese.
Found this lone Trumpeter Swan floating down the river. I thought he might come closer but apparently he didn’t like my presence and he meandered further away from me.
I can never pass up a chance to photograph a hawk, when one presents itself to me. He didn’t stick around long after I took the first image.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Well, it’s been a long, long time since I have posted to this blog. For those of you who have been a regular follower, I apologize.
Over the last few months several people have indicated to me that they would like to see me get back into taking pictures and posting on this blog. I will endeavor to do that in the coming day.
Last night was a unique event with the full eclipse of the moon. I have three images of the moon in various phases of the eclipse.
You can click on the images and see a larger more detailed view of the subject.
Photography is like any other skill. If you don’t stay constant you lose a significant amount of that skill. That has been true not only of my photography and setting up the camera. I have also lost a lot of the skills I once enjoyed in Photoshop.
Photo shop has changed so much in the last couple of years that what use to be routine is now a chore to figure out.
I stopped photographing with this image as I could get a focus lock on the fully eclipsed moon. That and it was way past my bed time. 🙂
That’s it for today. I will do better on my posting.
Met some friends for lunch yesterday in Maquoketa. I got to town early so I decided to go down by the river and see if anything was happening there.
It was a beautiful day and I liked some of the trees along the river bank so I grabbed a few images.
I know the peak color season is about over but I still enjoyed the brisk air and beautiful colors of the trees.
I was going to shoot some images at my favorite place (The Duck Pond) but the drought this past Summer has left the marsh in a sorry state. There was no wildlife around the pond and very little water remains.
Remember you can click on any of the images to reveal a larger more detailed image.
Hope to get out a little more this Fall and shoot some harvest images.
There is a saying in photography that goes, “Once you’ve photographed your subject, turn around and you might just find another interesting subject.”
I had been photographing a heard of Bison across the highway and as I was walking back to the car I saw this Raven. I had seen several of them in the park but they would never sit still long enough to get a decent shot of them.
He gave me a couple of different looks and then he decided to fly away. They are an interesting bird and quite large.
This was our last day in the park and it was getting late in the day so we were headed back to our hotel. We took a route that we had not been on before and saw this small water fall. One of the great things about Yellowstone Park is there are numerous pull over spots for people to stop and look.
This is an area that had been ravaged by fire a few years ago. Yellowstone keeps renewing itself and new growth and new life can be seen in the midst of the destruction. The park averages 3 to 4 fires a year and some of the areas of the park are in pretty bad shape but there is always new growth occurring.
We found this thermal on our way out of the park. If you click on the image to make it larger you will see in the upper left of the image the water boiling out of a hole.
Kind of a disgusting image but this is one of the many boiling mud pots that are around the park. There is a strong smell of sulfur in the air and you are constantly aware of the activity under the surface.
I really don’t know why this dead tree caught my attention but I felt compelled to photograph it so here it is.
I really hated leaving the park. Jeanne said it is the most beautiful and exciting place on the planet in her mind. I have to agree. Every time you turn around there is another picture to be made or wonder to see. Also kind of scary when you think that you are in the midst of one of the largest volcanoes in the world and the amount of destruction it would do when (not if), when it erupts would be cataclysmic.
While sitting at my back patio I was greeted with this beautiful half moon plus some stars. Please click on the image to reveal a larger more detailed image.
Sorry for the delay in posting more images. I have had some things going on in my life that have taken me away from my photography for awhile. Today I have several images of Bison. This was our third day in the park and we wanted to go back to the place where the”Buffalo Roam.” Sorry I couldn’t help myself. 🙂
Please click on the image to see a larger more detailed version of the image. Love the look on his face. It was close to the mating season when we were there and this is one of the things male Bison do to attract a mate.
This was after his dust roll and he came down to where his lady friend was standing. You can still see a little bit of the dust around him. You can see he is announcing his presence with his low bellow. When they do that I must admit it sounds ominous and foreboding.
I don’t know what she is thinking but she doesn’t look all the interested in him. He stood beside her for several minutes. Just swishing flies with his tail and every once in a while he would bellow again.
We never saw that many calves but when we did they were very close to their mother. If you look closely at his coat you can see that he has had a few scrapes already in his young life.
This is what happens when a Bison decides to cross the road. Major traffic jam. We saw an entire heard cross the road on our fist day in the park and we were far enough back with our van that I couldn’t get a shot of it. The park rangers were there to make sure they all got across the road. An average bull weighs 850 pounds and can run at about 35 mph so they are a presence to be reckoned with.
And now for our biggest adventure. We had stopped at a picnic area to have some lunch. There were lots of people there and we thought we were lucky to find an empty table. There was a group of eight to our left and a group of 4 to our right. Jeanne happened to mention that all the trees in the area had the bark rubbed off.
Not long after she said that we heard a low bellow and there he was. He was coming straight to our area. All of us in unison ran to our cars until he passed. He came up to our car and I was wondering how I was going to explain this big dent in the car. But he didn’t bother us and he casually walked on down to the stream for a drink and most of us went back to our lunch.
I will continue with our last day in the park. We saw some new things but we also went back to a couple of things we saw on our first day. Namely the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the area where we saw so many Bison on our first day.
On our way to the canyon we saw a small heard of elk feeding and resting. We weren’t lucky enough to see any bulls but we enjoyed watching these just taking it easy.
Back at the Grand Canyon the shear size and beauty of it is breath taking. As much as I tried no image can show the depth and breath of the magnificent place.
This image of the water fall was taken at a much higher vantage point then on our fist day. If you click on the image to make it larger you can actually see the people at the very top of the water fall.
When Angie and Ben were at the water fall they were standing where these people are and said the sound of the water was deafening
Every turn is another image waiting to be taken. This image was taken from the same vantage point as the one of the falls. I just turned 180 degrees and was greeted with this magnificent view.
Not too far from where the water fall is there is this Osprey nest. There was a placard detailing how many times the Osprey would frequent the nest. It was not their mating season so we had no chance of seeing them on the nest. I never saw one the entire trip.
Heading for the land of the Bison and came across this beautiful site of the hills, trees, and puffy clouds. These clouds later produced a pretty decent rain storm and gave the park about a half inch of rain.
I’ll be posting some more images soon. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Som
Upde Designs 