Three nights ago I got up at 12:15 am to photograph Lupines in the moonlight. Well, the following morning at 4:45 am I was out on the shores of Lake Superior awaiting the sunrise to photograph my favorite flowers. The first photo was taken 20 minutes before sunrise, whereas the final two were a few minutes after dawn (about 5:15 am).

Given the challenging light, I combined 3 images via HDR into one photograph such that I could both photograph the sun (or sky), but also bring out the colors of the flowers. This leads to the question, which photograph best reflects reality? Surprisingly the answer is not as easy as one might think. Right after the sun popped above the horizon, if a person looked directly at the sun, the flowers would only appear as silhouettes. However, if one made sure not to look directly at the yellow orb, the color of the flowers would be obvious. Thus, in my mind all the photographs are realistic.

20 Minutes Before Sunrise: Lupines on the shore of Lake Superior

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5 Minutes After Sunrise: Lupines on the shore of Lake Superior

Yup, that’s what Northern Shrikes do! After catching said bird, a shrike will sometimes impale the songbird on barbed wire to store its catch for a later meal. Ouch! May not sound nice, but it’s Mother Nature at work.

Found this Northern Shrike twice today  at the exact same spot on Scenic 61 about 1/2 mile north of the Lakewood Pumping Station. Work the tops of the pine trees on the lake side from the Northern Shores Townhomes to the Inn on Gitche Gumee. The shrike would tend to perch of the very tops of the pines, and then dive bomb to the trees lower down below the cliff’s edge. I assume it was attacking songbirds. I saw the bird immediately after church around 12:00 noon, and I took this photo at 4:00 pm … same exact stretch of shoreline. Thus, there is pretty good chance it will be around in the same area on Monday morning.

A few years back I decided to learn more about my camera by taking a community education class. I wanted to “get off auto”, and learn my “apertures” from my “f stops”. Eventually I figured out they were one in the same!

Like many things in life, there is often a #1 … in my case a bird photograph. Surprisingly it was not from northern Minnesota, but two feathered friends I found atop a mountain in the Canadian Rockies, Clarks Nutcrackers. The location was a summit near Lake Louise when there two birds decided to pay me a visit. Thankfully, I had my camera with me and shall we say the “rest is history”!

If you’re a birder and/or photographer what started you down this path? I had always loved birds when a child, but my nutcrackers took me to a new level. I’ve also included my latest photograph of some snow buntings taken while on yesterday morning’s bike ride. Thus, the first and the latest photos in my hobby / obsession.

Clarks Nutcrackers

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Snow Buntings