A landscape with wildlife, or wildlife in a landscape?  Either or I guess.

Many years ago I drove into this section of Crex Meadows Wildlife Area
(in the far northwest corner of Wisconsin), because I
spotted some Sandhill Cranes flying around above some fields.

When I got there, I forgot completely about the cranes, as I became
enchanted with the ethereal qualities of the grasses and other plants.
Came for the wildlife, stayed for the land. Sometimes good fortune
shines on us, and three cranes landed in the perfect location for a
“combo” image. Since the 1970s, one of my favorite types of nature
photos have been, landscapes with animals in them.

King or queen of the marsh?

You really don’t see Great Egrets high up in trees that often, but
when I have in the past, I always made pictures.  I would have liked
some weak, blue skies in the background, and the branches near the end
of the bird’s bill would be missing if I had a choice, but nature
photography is the domain of the opportunist, so I made the most of
that opportunity.

I used my Nikon 500mm lens, resting on a pillow on the open window
area of my car. My shutter speed was 1/250th sec. and that is marginal
(no VR) so an F stop of f/11 was all I could muster. I would have
loved to have shot at f/22 and gotten those leaves in full sharpness.
This image is average and is only acceptable because those leaves are
behind the bird.

Keep your nose to the ground.

I caught this male Red Fox slinking around the edge of a harbor as
he was hunting. He did manage to catch a ground squirrel,
although, he unfortunately was a great deal always from me when that happened.

We always take what we get when we photograph wildlife but really,
almost everything they do is photographable.

Pop!!

I always photographed anything that might make an interesting picture, and that
certainly includes both wildflowers and domestic/cultivated types.

Tulips are not my favorite flowers, but they can make great pictures.
I used my 300mm macro lens for this image because I wanted a plain
uncomplicated (and shadowed) background. I did however, remove some background debris in the editing process. This picture fits the definition of “pop”!!

Nailed

Many years ago, I was out in search of spring birds to photograph, and
decided to create an abstract view of the bark and some lichens on a nearby tree. I had my 500mm f4 with me and used that. I have made countless landscapes and many “macro type” images included abstracts, with that workhorse wildlife lens. I rarely gave up on an image because I did not feel I had the right lens with me.

I have never even reviewed this image on my computer since it was made
in June of 2009. While I was converting into jpg yesterday, I noticed
that there is actually a nail protruding in the upper third of the
photo. I am not sure whether I did not notice this when I made the
image, or I actually made the picture because of it. Either way, there
is always an image waiting for us to make.

Cya next time,

Wayne