Up North Images - Photography by Jon Wood

This weekend's shots

2012-01-29T14:56:00.001-06:00

Heard first, then saw the female Cardinal for the first time this year. No shots. Hopefully lots of sightings and photos to come in February!

2012-01-22T15:15:00.001-06:00

10 degrees today, spent 2 hours in the blind, great opportunities, still no cardinals!

2012-01-02T19:11:00.002-06:00

Kinda cold today, (20 degrees) had great light but bird count was low

Week 3

2011-12-17T21:31:00.000-06:00

Used a different aperture, f8, I think I like these better.

Week 2 from the blind

2011-12-12T18:52:00.003-06:00

These are all taken after 3 pm, my blind is set up for evening light. No Cardinals have been heard or spotted. My buddy Mike seems to think they'll show up after it snows. I am getting kinda bored of our snowless, brown landscape so far this winter.

Another winter approaches in SW Minnesota

2011-12-04T18:50:00.001-06:00

I decided to set up my winter photo blind earlier than I have in the past. I chose the same area but further down the river. The main objective is to set up some feeders and attract chickadees, cardinals, nuthatches and a variety of woodpeckers. Usually it starts with putting up the feeders which we did on Friday night shortly after dark with the hope that the birds will get some good feeding time at the feeders in the morning before I show up. I arrived late morning not too enthusiastic to start earlier because of forecasted cloudy skies. The nuthatches and chickadees were the only ones around for the two hours I spent in the blind with this chickadee being my best shot. The peace and quiet was overwhelming and a great way to spend a Saturday.

After leaving the blind I decided to check out the Dakota Valley trail and the many small waterfalls along it's meandering path out of the hills. As with all images I create, a simple composition is my goal, evident in this waterfall closeup. I got down really low on the ground with my camera to make this shot.

The ice is starting to form creating many new shapes everyday.

As I was shooting the low angle waterfall, I heard a noise on my right, and not ten yards away a huge doe came into view and cleared the river with a single bound followed by another. Startled, I set my camera up quickly to capture the next one and I looked up, she saw me, then ran back up the hill. I stayed in the same position for the next 15 minutes waiting for that magical moment to happen again with no luck. The next image is the scene the deer were jumping through. Just imagine a big doe flying over the river, filling most of the frame, with her fluffy white tail standing at attention. Not to be forgotten anytime soon, and I might just make another trip soon to try and capture that action.

This is one of my favorite shots of the day with the frozen grass as a strong foreground element and the water cascading around the log.

The pool bridge is a great subject for photos from any angle.

The ice forms countless numbers of shapes along the river's edge with razor-sharp corners.

The prairie grasses are still standing strong glowing orange in the sunset light.

The abandoned farm house and shed are still present along the western edge of Camden State Park. My father spent some time there as a child some 50 or so years ago.

The railroad leads off into the sunset. I had to use my 3-stop reverse graduated filter to balance out the bright sky.

Below zero bird blog

2011-02-26T23:00:00.020-06:00

I stayed at my bird blind in Camden State Park for 4 hours today. Very peaceful and very cold, -1 when I left at 2 pm. I had to go for a walk at noon to unthaw my toes. Despite the cold, the birds were everywhere. One thing out of the ordinary, today, was that I could not call in any cardinals. They usually come near with a few whistles, but not today, so I included some cardinal images from last weekend.

The Pileated Woodpecker roosts directly above my head and is around all day banging on the same old tree that I've seen him on for the last 3 years. I just wish the trees he hangs out in weren't so high.

Pileated Woodpecker male (red below the eye also, females don't have this)

Female Cardinal
Male Cardinal

The chickadees are so fun and still my favorite and keep me very busy. They landed on each perch I had set up so it was a successful day.

Sometimes the out-of-focus shots make for neat images.

Male Downy Woodpecker

Female Downy Woodpecker

Junco

Fun day but my backside and neck hurt severely!

Fall on the North Shore 2010

2010-10-24T15:41:00.006-05:00

We spent our fall vacation this year at the Cabin at Chimney Rock perched atop a cliff overlooking Chicago Bay in Hovland, MN. The old Hovland dock provided some great photo opportunities. Our cabin is the two orange lights on the far shore off the end of the dock in the last photo. The big house in the first photo is the home of the landowners who were kind enough to rent us their guest cabin.

The forest floor provided many interesting color and texture combinations.

Seeing these old growth pines is a magical thing, but yet a reminder of the old overlogging days.

Rengo Road on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation is by far the coolest road for fall colors in Minnesota

The big Birch trees are my favorite with their yellow white and black colors.

Autumn art

2010-09-24T23:24:00.002-05:00

This technique was inspired by a fellow photographer http://rogernordstromphoto.blogspot.com/2010/09/fall-abstracts.html and I decided to try my luck. I twisted and zoomed at the same time during the exposure at this patch of sumac.

And got these...

My day today 9-4-2010

2010-09-04T23:06:00.005-05:00

Set up the camera outside my office window, ran my long shutter-release cable in and took some fun pics of the hummingbirds at the feeder. At times there were 4 or 5 birds dive-bombing each other and making a bunch of noise!

Male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Then I went out and set up my blind in a known big buck area! None today, but stay tuned!

Prairie grass and Goldenrod

A lone Cottonwood tree stands sentinel over a SW MN rural soybean field

As the sun set, the colors came alive.

Minnesota State Flower

2010-06-13T21:15:00.009-05:00

Me and Mike headed up to Itasca State Park hoping to view the state flower blooming in it's natural environment. I knew the yellows were blooming, which are usually earlier than the pink and whites, so I thought we could try and at least get some photos of the yellows. Last year, the pink and whites didn't bloom until the 4th of July.

One bad thing about going to Itasca is there is A LOT of poison ivy in the same area as the lady slippers. The last two years, I have gotten it really bad and Alex (my son) did too last year. So armed with long pants and sleeves and knee pads we arrived and were greeted with pink and whites in the ditches in the park. They were just starting to bloom in some of the more popular clumps that I knew of.

We hit all the hot spots and were rewarded with some spectacular displays of this gorgeous orchid. It sure is easy to understand why this flower was picked as our state flower after seeing it in real life.

The wild roses were blooming everywhere and we smelled roses all day long, what a treat!

The Blue Flag Irises were even blooming, along with the Marsh Marigolds, what luck we had!

It sure was worth the 4 hour drive! As we were leaving the park, we came across some really big patches of pink and whites that were all blooming! Two hours south, when we were near Long Prairie, I spotted a whole ditch full of pink and whites! Guess next year we don't have to drive so far.

Cardinals

2010-03-03T21:42:00.002-06:00

I have literally dreamed of getting these certain photos. I think that about sums it up. It's been really fun hanging out with my buddy Mike getting these images from our blinds!

Our winter bird blinds

2010-02-27T19:27:00.009-06:00

We have located at least where the Pileated Woodpecker sleeps, but is this where they will nest? We dug holes 3 feet down into the snow then set our blinds on the snow around the hole elevating them from the ground so we are able to stand up in them for now. We have had them set up for about a month now in hopes of getting the birds used to our presence. So far so good. Every morning that we have visited at sunrise, he pops his head out of the hole and peeks at us before flying off. Then he always flies to this one tree and begins hammering away. It is a loud, solid, hollow, hammering noise, almost eerie on a quiet cold morning such as today,10 degrees! Our next task is to get good flight shots of him soaring out of his hole and to investigate the tree he goes to all the time. We have seed feeders and suet feeders to keep us company while the big woodpecker is gone. We have had chickadees, nuthatches, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, and cardinals visit us at our 2nd home. We actually spent some time mimicking the birds and calling them in and it worked

That's all for today, stay tuned!!

Hoar frost

2010-01-26T23:08:00.010-06:00

Well, it sure has been a winter full of snow. We were blessed with a couple days last week where it was foggy and it collected and froze on the trees creating this beautiful new look to everything. I was able to get a few photos before the wind blew it all off. Enjoy!

I really didn't know where to start taking photos and I saw this scene so I stopped the truck right in the middle of the street in town and took this out my window, beware, I do this alot!

I took this Milkweed photo leaving Camden State Park.

I was able to get out on the river and stand on the ice to get this shot.

Cattails

Old farm equipment. Not my usual subject for photography, but I found this very interesting, especially in black and white.

This is an old shed on an abandoned farmstead which is now state park land.

I found these fenceposts leading away to be a pleasing composition.

This lone tree really caught my eye.

Frosty winter scene.

Frosty pines.

Frosty pine cone close-up

Trumpeter Swans

2010-01-11T23:17:00.002-06:00

Me and my buddy Mike went to Monticello in late December 2009 to visit the Trumpeter Swans on the Mississippi. There is a lady who feeds them everyday and there are literally thousands of birds right in front of you! We viewed them from Swan Park, right next to her property, and had endless opportunities to photograph them along with Canada Geese and Mallards.

Brand new deer

2010-01-11T23:15:00.002-06:00

These were the most cooperative fawns I have ever come across. They were in Camden State Park. It had just stopped raining and I pulled up right beside them and parked. I even had time, after I got my shots, to hand my camera over to my 9 yr-old son. It was such a thrill to see his face light up when he saw them in the view finder and start firing away.

The American Bald Eagle

2010-01-11T23:06:00.007-06:00

Getting a flight shot like this of an eagle was a thrill beyond all other wildlife photography that I've done! But, it makes me want more...

Seeing young eagles is always a treat and an indicator of their increasing population.

We are all fortunate enough to have an increasing population of Bald Eagles. To first see them in the wild after traveling up to northern Minnesota, many years ago now, was such a special experience. Now I see them in my hometown in SW Minnesota and it is still such a humbling experience to see these magnificent birds.

Black-Capped Chickadee

2010-01-11T22:50:00.003-06:00

The Black-Capped Chickadee always seems to be present wherever you go, in any season. Such a busy bird, with it's distinctive song chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee. A challenge to photograph but always a companion it seems to the patient photographer.

Birds

2009-12-30T00:09:00.003-06:00

I have learned alot this year about bird photography. It's not easy, but it is exciting and rewarding. This Indigo Bunting has been on my list for awhile and I finally got one.

The most fun was setting up my blind next to a Bluebird nest in Camden State Park. They would dive bomb me every time I'd show my face outsidethe blind.

Getting the birds to come to the backyard is great! The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and American Goldfinch were two of my favorite captures.

The Cardinal population must be increasing or else it's my attention to them, whatever the case I am getting a pair almost every day at the feeders.

Prairie at it's finest

2009-12-06T15:22:00.007-06:00

First off, after I first started this blog back in late August '09, I fell ill and spent some time in the hospital. I am better now and on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, updating my blog in the meantime has not been on my priority list until now. It's hard to remember the details like I wanted to record at the time, but I'll do my best to fill in the gaps from then until now.

The prairie in Camden State Park once again was alive with color this late summer weekend. I led a sunrise walk out to the priairie and came up with a few very nice images. It was very nice to spend time Deb and her husband along with Tom and surprise guest Bonnie from Marshall who showed up at the shelter.

Camden Prairie Walk

2009-09-01T00:03:00.001-05:00

Back on June 21st, 2009, I invited anyone interested to join me on a prairie walk in Camden State Park on Saturday, Aug. 29th, 2009. I knew it would be full of vibrant colors based on my photos from last year on that date. I scouted it out weeks beforehand and it was going to be just as I expected, although with a slightly different set of flowers, well namely the Purple Coneflower was done blooming and all dried up, but there were plenty of others to choose from including Goldenrod, Blazing Star, Yellow Coneflower, Gentians, and many others that I am still learning the names of. During my pre-hike scouting, I was able to capture some Purple Coneflowers. I love their color and lonely, droopy appearance.

2009-08-31T00:33:00.001-05:00

I arrived Friday at noon and got the campsite set up. Tom Flynn from Camera Talk Minnesota was already there and we met and were able to immediately talk about our passions, cameras and photography, how fun! We decided to go out to the prairie that night and try our luck at capturing star trails away from city lights. After figuring out how to focus in pitch blackness and what settings to use, an hour later we had some pretty good shots.