It was just like the old-timers talk about….Flocks of geese everywhere! I hit it right again this year (thanks to eBird reports, the Minnesota Birding Facebook Group and intel from my birding buddies, Kim Risen and Steve Millard. Thanks guys!

Definitely got my much-needed dose of mega-goose migration on the prairie. The cacophony of goose cackles and swan honks is definitely worth the 8 hour round trip. The 25-35 mph winds made video and sound recording challenging but I did my best.

North Ottawa Impoundment in Grant County, Minnesota was the hot spot. Five species of geese including tens of thousands of Snow Geese, thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese, and lesser amounts of Ross’s Geese, Canada Geese and Cackling Geese. But back roads in Grant and Ottertail and Traverse counties held numerous flocks. I’d see a smudge on the horizon, throw up my binoculars and the smudge would come to life as a massive flock of geese.

Tundra Swans were also moving in impressive numbers.

I also searched for Short-eared Owls in prairie areas (SNAs, WPAs, WMAs) and did flush one but did not see any hunting.

All photos and video shot with Canon R5 and Canon 100-500mm lens. Additional video shot with Panasonic GH5 and Sigma 50-500mm lens (“toy” miniature time lapse), and iPhone 7+

I am bored of “bird on stick” photos…but I still take them. Every year I strive to get more creative with my wildlife photography. It’s often not easy to do….or at least not easy to remember to do something different. Get the portrait, but then think about how else you can shoot the subject…silhouette? slow shutter? animal-in-landscape? Of course, you can also get creative in “post” and do some interesting crops, or possibly convert an image to black and white. Have fun and play around!

Kingbird sunset silhouette (Felton Prairie, Clay County, Minnesota) August 16, 2018

Smoke from Canadian forest fires made much of the day a hazy mess…making photography difficult. But as the sun set it turned into a fiery ball in the west. Now if I could find a subject to silhouette! Fortunately an Eastern Kingbird landed in a roadside bush. Not the most interesting pose to silhouette, but I love the contrast between the deep blue twilight sky and orange fireball sun.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/5000 at f7.1; ISO 640; -2.0ev; hand-held]

Wild Horse (feral) in Teddy Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota) April 30, 2018

A creative crop of a very curious wild horse (feral horse). I love their wild, human-like hair and big expressive eyes.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 200mm f2 L IS USM lens; 1/320 at f2; ISO 250; hand-held]

Trumpeter Swans (Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming) April 30, 2018

A black-and-white conversion that works well with these white subjects. Trumpeters are very curious and will sometimes swim towards you…A very nice behavior for photographers!

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 200mm f2 L IS USM lens; 1/1250 at f2; ISO 200; hand-held]

Red-winged Blackbird sunrise (Tobin-Kimmes Wetlands, Douglas County, Wisconsin) May 12, 2018

I was looking for a different photo on this spring morning, but you always have to be open to other opportunities. The catkin-laced branches of this willow add to the image, as does the singing and displaying male Red-winged Blackbird.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/800 second at f11; ISO 100; hand-held]

Sandhill Cranes and full moon (Crex Meadows Wildlife Refuge, Grantsburg, Wisconsin) October 22, 2018

Sandhill Cranes were streaming in to their nighttime watery roost at Crex Meadows as the nearly-full moon was rising. Many photographers had come to try and get crane-moon photos. This was my favorite as the cranes are very sharp and the sky had a tinge of purple.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/400 at f5.6; ISO 400; -1.0ev; tripod]

Tundra Swans (Upper Mississippi NWR, Brownsville, Minnesota) November 17, 2018

I wanted to see what would happen with a very long exposure (13 seconds on a tripod) as some Tundra Swans were still and some were still swimming around. I got this interesting photo of sharp sleeping swans and long white streaks showing the 13-second path of the swimming swans.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 13 seconds at f20; ISO 100; +1.66 ev; tripod]

Three displaying  Wild Turkey toms (Carlton County, Minnesota) May 29, 2018

It was a blah morning with gray skies when I ran across three tom Turkeys displaying on a dirt road. I positioned myself so I could silhouette their whole bodies against the sky. I then pushed the white balance slider all the way to the right in Lightroom (warmer=more yellow/orange)…Voila! Instant sunrise sky.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/5000 at f7.1; ISO 640; -2.0ev; hand-held]

Bison fur detail (Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming) April 28, 2018

Love the texture of Bison hair.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 200mm f2 L IS USM lens with Canon 2x teleconverter; 1/640 at f4; ISO 400; hand-held]

High key Sandhill Cranes in frosty field (Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming) April 27, 2018

Some photos you don’t think much about when you take them. But when you see them on your computer at home, some really strike your fancy. I liked both the position of the feeding cranes and the frosty grass. To make it a “high key” photo, I adjusted the white levels in Lightroom until the background became totally clipped (blown out…absolute white).

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 200mm f2 L IS USM lens with Canon 2x teleconverter; 1/500 at f4; ISO 200; hand-held]

Eastern Bluebird at Nana’s farm (Galesburg, Illinois) March 30, 2018

Just a quirky photo of an Eastern Bluebird and its silhouette on a barn wall.

[Canon 7D with Sigma 50-500mm lens at 373mm; 1/1000 second at f6.3; ISO 1000; -0.66 ev; hand-held]

Mayflies at Midnight (St. Louis River, Fond du Lac Bridge, Duluth, Minnesota) July 12, 2018

Hexagenia Mayflies emerge en masse from large rivers in mid summer. Some years are bigger than others, and 2018 was a big year along the St. Louis River near Duluth. This is a long exposure of thousands of mayflies flying about a street light on the bridge. Their floppy flight makes interesting light patterns during the 1/4 second exposure.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/4 second at f5.6; ISO 400; -1.0ev; hand-held, braced on car door frame]

Wild Turkey feathers up close (Skogstjarna, Carlton County, Minnesota)

Taken out my living room window! Love the iridescence on these stunning creatures.

October 22, 2018 (Monday)

**ALL OF THE BELOW PHOTOS ARE SINGLE FRAMES AS TAKEN…I DID NOT “ADD THE MOON IN PHOTOSHOP”

I ran into several photographer friends down in Wisconsin’s Crex Meadows Wildlife Area yesterday. I guess we were all thinking the same thing…Two days before the full moon is a perfect time to try and photograph Sandhill Cranes in front of a massive moon.

Lauren the naturalist gave me three locations to try for the dusk fly-in of the Sandhill Cranes. One was my “usual spot” along the Main Dike Road. I didn’t want to risk a new spot today so I stuck with my normal spot.

I ran into fellow photographer Mike Dec and we decided to shoot from the same spot. The wind was blowing strong out of the northwest, but the temp was in the low 50s. Cold fingers and shaking tripod!

Sandhills by the thousands roost in the wildlife reserve over night. The shallow-water marshes are basically inaccessible to most predators, and there is also safety in numbers. During the day the cranes feed in harvested corn fields outside the refuge and then fly in a bit before sunset. THOUSANDS roost here in the late autumn.

I was shooting slow-motion 180 fps video with the Panasonic GH5 on a tripod while trying to shoot stills with my Canon 7D and Canon 400mm f5.6 lens hand held. Every time a flock was approaching the moon at what seemed the proper trajectory to pass right in front, Mike and I alerted each other.

But focusing on the cranes was a challenge and I missed some shots because of my camera/lenses inability to lock on to a bird.

A memorable evening! Plan on being at Wisconsin’s Crex Meadows next late October.

The moon rose large behind a stand of oaks but there was little contrast between the sky and the moon. But over the next half hour the moon began to pop as the sky turned from blue to twilight purple. This flock of cranes were lit by the last orange rays of the setting sun.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/1250 second at f5.6; ISO 640; -1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

Before the moon rose at 5:47pm, I took some flight shots with slow shutter speeds. I have so many sharp flight shots that I really don’t need more. Time to get a bit creative! So I slowed the shutter way down to 1/10 of a second at f20; ISO 100. The results are “very artistic” and impressionistic. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/10 second at f20; ISO 100; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015] (top photo at 1/30 second)

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/1600 second at f5.6; ISO 640; -1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/1600 second at f5.6; ISO 640; -1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

This is a single frame extracted from a HD slow motion video. Not the sharpest shot, but still very pleasing in a painterly way.

[Panasonic GH5 with Sigma 50-500mm f4/5-6.1 lens; 1/320 second; tripod; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 70-200mm f4L USM lens at 118mm; 1/100 second at f9; ISO 1000; -1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

A couple “selective focus” shots. Basically impossible to get both the cranes and moon in sharp focus in the same shot (unless the cranes were about 2 miles away) so I tried some photos where I focused on the moon instead of the cranes.

These are single frames extracted from a HD slow motion video.

[Panasonic GH5 with Sigma 50-500mm f4/5-6.1 lens; 1/320 second; tripod; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/320 second at f5.6; ISO 400;-1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

The above three photos of the roosting Sandhill Cranes were taken well AFTER SUNSET. Long exposures on a tripod. As usual, I was the last car at the spot. You never know what image might present itself after the “main show” is over.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/400 second at f5.6; ISO400;-1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

The above two photos are probably my favorites from the entire shoot. The top is the uncrossed version, and the bottom is cropped to just 4 cranes. I like that they are very SHARP for being hand-held (way to go “steady Sparky”!). I also really like the even spread of cranes and the position of the legs and wings of the crane silhouetted by the moon. And of course, the purple sky color is a bonus.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/400 second at f5.6; ISO400;-1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

As the moon continued to rise after sunset, the color was washed from the sky. The only option was to catch a flock as they passed right in front of the moon.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6L USM lens; 1/250 second at f7.1; ISO1600;-1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

On my way out of Crex Meadows I saw this sight; three Trumpeter Swans silhouetted by the nearly-full moon’s reflection on a marsh. I took a bunch of handheld shots at ISO 12,800(!!), but should have set up a tripod since most are unusable.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 70-200mm f4L USM lens at 200mm; 1/60 second at f5.6; ISO 12,800; -1.0 ev; hand-held; processed in Lightroom CC 2015]

Still Life with Redtail and Moon 1
How could I pass this up? Wish I could have set up a tripod and shot at f22 or smaller to get more depth of field and the moon more in focus, but redtails don’t pose for that long.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f20 at 1/200 second; ISO 400; -0.33ev; handheld]

Silver Griz
This fella was our only Grizzly of the trip. Mid April is a bit early for many bears to be out of hibernation…and the high country roads are not yet open where there could very well be more bears. On our mid May trip a couple years ago, we saw quite a few Griz. But this guy was sure a beauty! We stopped, as we almost always do, when we saw a couple cars pulled over (and here’s the real key) and some long lenses on tripods. “What do ya got?” Is the standard photographer-to-photographer exchange in situations like this. They’d seen a Grizzly on the slope on the opposite side of the river, but it had moved off into some forest cover. So we pulled over, got out and helped them relocate the bear. Well nature called to Ryan, and while he was watering the early spring grass, he spotted the bear. He came back to the road and told us. I got a few handheld shots but Ryan had to go back to our car to get his camera. When Ryan got back, I went back to the car to get my tripod. But soon after I left something really spooked the Grizzly and it ran off. The only thing we know of that can spook the apex predator of the park…is another Grizzly. But while we waited another 45 minutes or so, nothing showed.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f5.6 at 1/1000 second; ISO 400; handheld]

Sole of the Bear
This Black Bear recently out of hibernation had the most unusual nearly white, soles of its feet. I’ve seen many many Black Bears and have never noticed this trait before. My gut feeling is that this bear just had abnormally pale foot pads.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f7.1 at 1/640 second; ISO 500; -1ev; tripod]

Rockin’ Redtail
The Red-tailed Hawks were certainly migrating through and returning to Yellowstone this week. We saw many, and this one posed on a picture-perfect perch long enough to get a shot.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f7.1 at 1/2000 second; ISO 320; +1ev; tripod]

Lunar Buteo
Red-tailed Hawks are a type of buteo…a raptor with big broad wings and short tails. They are built for soaring, scanning open country for prey. “Forest hawks” who hunt in dense woods need shorter rounded wings and long tails (to act as an “air rudder”) so they can maneuver in close quarters in flight. I love “bird and moon” shots…especially when the bird is relatively small in the frame. Of course, these images are best viewed large.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f5.6 at 1/2500 second; ISO 320; handheld]

Pronghorn in the Sage
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f5.6 at 1/800 second; ISO 250; handheld, braced on outside of car]

Ryan Marshik

Campsite Buddies!
Each night, a small herd of Bison grazed right through our campsite, noisily munching the new green grass. It’s funny, you would never dare to get this close to them out in the park (in fact it’s illegal to get closer than 25 yards) but here they are so preoccupied, and used to people, that you can sit at your picnic table 5 yards away and enjoy the slow parade.

Sandhill Crane in its Finest
Love the “bustle” of this Sandhill Crane. It was one of a pair that had returned to nest in the park’s marshes and wet meadows.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f10 at 1/500 second; ISO 400; -0.33ev; handheld, braced on car window frame]

Dipper thinking about taking a Dip
Dippers feed on underwater aquatic critters in fast moving streams and rivers of the western U.S. They are one of Bridget’s favorite birds and so I always try and get a few shots.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f6.3 at 1/250 second; ISO 640; handheld]

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 255mm; f11 at 1/2000 second; ISO 100; -2.33ev; tripod]

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 255mm; f11 at 1/320 second; ISO 100; tripod]

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f11 at 1/800 second; ISO 100; -2ev; tripod]
All three of the above shots of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River were taken from Artist’s Point. The falls, at 308 vertical feet, is the tallest in the park. The light (quality and direction) was not good for broad scenic vistas, so I used the telephoto to zoom in on one part of the scene. The lone silhouetted tree really made this shot for me. Here are three variations…Which do you like?

Goofy Bull
Early spring is NOT a good time to photograph Elk in the West; all the Elk at this time of year look pretty ratty. They are shedding their winter coats, and not gracefully. The older bulls are just sprouting their new antlers, growth being nourished by the blood-rich “velvet” coating them (see photo below), but the first year bulls sometimes hold their little antlers all winter instead of dropping them in late fall/early winter like the older guys.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 300mm; f5 at 1/1600 second; ISO 200; handheld]

Big and Velvety
These were some really big boys holding up traffic along the road. Note their height compared to the car in the foreground. Wish I could see these guys again in the fall when their massive antlers will be in their prime.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 214mm; f7.1 at 1/400 second; ISO 500; tripod]

American Serengeti
Easily the biggest herd of Elk I’ve ever seen in Yellowstone…over 200 animals. I didn’t even include all the herd in this shot. Nearby were herds of Bison, Mule Deer and Pronghorn. Impressive!
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 263mm; f6.3 at 1/60 second; ISO 320; tripod (accidentally at this shutter speed because I had just switched over from taking some video)]

I hadn’t been out shooting with Ryan for a long time. You know how it is…life gets in the way. So on Friday we headed down to Crex Meadows near Grantsburg, Wisconsin for a little “target practice.” Sandhill Cranes stage here in late autumn to fuel up for their next stage of migration. The cranes feed in area corn fields during the day, but return to roost in the safety of Crex Meadows marshes just before sunset.

When Ryan pointed out the rising moon, I knew what photo I wanted. It’s easy to get cranes flying in front of the moon…The hard part is getting enough depth of field for both to be in focus and yet have enough shutter speed to stop the motion of the flying cranes. So I stopped down to f16 and set the shutter speed to 1/500 and set the ISO to “Auto.” You need a fair amount of light to do this so it must be when the moon is rising before the sun sets but before it gets too high in the sky. Also the cranes need to be not too close and not too far away. It all came together in this shot, though the ISO did have to range up to 1250.

The trip was mainly about just getting out with a buddy…We both have more crane photos than we can count…We’ve been to Crex many times and also spent a glorious five days in New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache, a major wintering area for Lesser Sandhill Cranes (and they are even more tame than these Greaters).

Long story, short, I have some very nice Sandhill Crane portrait shots (sharp, beautiful light, etc) So, with the pressure off, it was time to experiment. And this may be my favorite photo from the entire trip (all 6 hours of it!). I slowed the shutter to 1/15 of a second and panned with the flocks as they came in to roost. I cropped it and converted it to black and white. It is the “essence” of crane flight. I love the abstract flow and motion, and the way you can almost see and feel their wings flapping. We joked with Sridhar, a fellow wildlife photographer from Minneapolis, about our mistakes becoming “fine art” photography…but this one was intentional…I promise!

A line of Greater Sandhill Cranes coming in from the west, flying through a streak of color as the sun set.

Top: Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f/16 at 1/500 second at ISO 1250, tripod
Middle: Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f/32 at 1/15 second at ISO 100, tripod
Bottom: Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens and 1.4x teleconverter; f/8 at 1/200 second at ISO 500, tripod

I’d once heard that the moon was about 225,000 miles away from little old me (and you). So ever since I’ve used this as the “moon milestone” for my cars. “The Box,” my first car, a 1975 brown Plymouth Valiant, probably made it…but the odometer quit working at about 190k. My 1984 Subaru GL 4×4 wagon made it (then was towed away by the Carlton County Sheriff). My candy apple red 1992 Jeep Cherokee almost made it but the door fell off and mice became permanent residents before it went to car heaven (the crusher). My Plymouth Grand Caravan survived to about 190k before the transmission went out (Ask me about my drive across Minnesota in 3rd gear!).

In reality, since the moon’s orbit is elliptical, the distance from Earth varies from about 221,463 miles at perigee (closest approach to Earth) to 251,968 miles at apogee (farthest point). The average distance from the moon to the Earth is 238,857 miles.

Anyway, I’m sticking with my 225k benchmark, and just last week, on my way up the North Shore, my current vehicle reached this moon milestone. The 1999 Subaru Forester I bought from my DNR boss (Thanks Steve!) after my van died, turned the big 225 near the mouth of Crystal Creek on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. I took a photo to commemorate the moment.

But I thought I would take the opportunity to post some of my favorite moon images. Enjoy!…and may all your vehicles make to the moon!

Moonrise at Split Rock Lighthouse, North Shore of Lake Superior, Minnesota.
Canon Rebel XTi with Canon 70-200mm f4 at 84mm; ISO 400; f9 at 5 seconds (Long exposure so the moon is blurred due to its/our movement, but this works when the moon is relatively small in the frame.

The full moon setting behind a grove of Red and White Pines. St. Louis County, Minnesota

Moonrise over Lake Superior..Horizon and sky merge. Taken from Billy Lovaas’s 25-foot wood-canvas canoe on an outing out of Grand Marais. The moon is “squashed” due to optical illusions as the moon rises over water.
Canon 40D with Canon 400mm f5.6; ISO 1600; f5.6 at 1/100 Handheld (!).

I really like this image of a flock of Sandhill Cranes flying below the moon. Birds don’t always need to fill the frame to make compelling images. Crex Meadows Refuge, Wisconsin.
Canon Rebel 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6; ISO 400; f8 at 1/1000 (This type of shot is only possible for a short time when the sky is still bright enough to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the flying birds but dark enough to actually see the moon.)

Crescent moons can be as compelling as full moons. Moonset at Twin Lakes, Superior National Forest Minnesota
Canon Rebel XTi with Canon 70-200mm f4 at 200mm; ISO 400; f5 at 1/10; tripod

Full moon and White Pine, Carlton County, Minnesota.
Canon Rebel XTi with Canon 400mm f5.6; ISO 400; f18 at 1/25; tripod (This is a difficult shot as you need great depth of field to keep both the moon and White Pine in focus…BUT you also need a fast enough shutter speed so that the moon doesn’t blur.)

Exposure Tip: Photographing the moon can be tricky…We are moving relatively fast in relation to the moon, so exposures need to be quite short to render the moon sharp. Also don’t rely on auto exposure or Program mode as the camera will try and make the dark sky medium-toned thereby blowing out the moon. Instead expose for the moon itself by either a) spot-metering the moon, b) underexposing by a couple stops and checking your histogram and adjusting till you get a proper exposure or c) using the “sunny 16 rule” (for full moons)…f16 at the reciprocal shutter speed of the ISO of the film/digital setting used. So the proper exposure of a full moon when camera is set to ISO 400 would be f16 at 1/400 second.

Top image is a “photo-illustration” combining two photos—one of the full moon and one of the Bighorn. Both were taken in Yellowstone. The Bighorn was shot as a silhouette and I immediately thought it would be a cool illustration if I could “Photoshop” in a full moon. Of course, I would always divulge the fact that this image is actually two images combined, and hope that whoever publishes it would also label it as a “photo-illustration.” It’s just my ethics.