Early Summer Spiderwort

By Jim | Published August 2, 2017




Today’s post features a few images I captured back in late June while in the Des Moines, Iowa area, participating in the ArtsFest Midwest Art Show. On one of my free days, I drove to the nearby Neil Smith NWR. While hiking around the area, I found some nice patches of Spiderwort wildflowers in bloom: […]

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Bull Elk in Velvet

By Jim | Published July 7, 2017




While photographing at the Neil Smith NWR (near Des Moines, Iowa) a couple of weeks ago, I discovered there were some elk on the refuge. I was aware of a bison herd, but had never heard about or seen any elk. But as I drove the backside of the refuge, I saw a small group […]

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Fun Friday: Beautiful in Black

By Jim | Published June 30, 2017




While in Des Moines last weekend for the annual art show, I made some time to drive to the nearby Neil Smith NWR to photograph wildflowers and wildlife. One of the highlights was finding and photographing Ebony Jewell-winged Damselflies. I had found a ton of these beauties when in town last year; this year there […]

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Common Merganser Females

By Jim | Published February 24, 2016




Yesterday, I featured some male Common Mergansers … today’s post features some females. Although called Common Mergansers, I often call them “Bad Hair Day Ducks”, from their obvious crests. Here are a few images I captured during slow times on my “Wintering Bald Eagles” photo workshop in January: And to show the distinct differences between […]

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Common Merganser Males

By Jim | Published February 23, 2016




Today’s post features some of the many ducks we constantly had around us during my January “Wintering Bald Eagle” photo workshop on the Mississippi River. We had several species of ducks present, but the overwhelming majority were Common Mergansers. Today, I’m featuring the adult males; I have some of the females that I will feature […]

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Fun Friday: Open Wide!

By Jim | Published February 19, 2016




Today’s “Fun Friday” post comes from my January bald eagle photography workshop on the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa. A single, American White Pelican flew in and was fishing in front of us for a while, during 2 of our 3 days on the river. I just love the expression on this guy as he […]

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More Bald Eagle Images From Day 1

By Jim | Published January 27, 2016




Today’s post includes some more images captured on Day 1 of my recent “Wintering Bald Eagles” photo workshop. Starting out extremely cold, the day ended up still cold (but a few degrees warmer) and the steam burned off, leaving us with some nice, blue skies with a few, puffy white clouds dispersed across the sky. […]

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A Steamy Situation, and More

By Jim | Published January 26, 2016




Some more intense steam rising from the Mississippi River images from Day 1 of the workshop: Later in the morning, the sun began to rise and gave a nice yellow tint to the steam and surrounding area, as a lone Bald Eagle flew across the river: Later in the day, the steam subsided, probably due […]

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Playing ‘Hot Potato’

By Jim | Published January 25, 2016




I had a really great photo workshop with the wintering Bald Eagles on the Mississippi River last week. It was a small group photo workshop with 3 participants and myself. We were graced with a large showing of Bald Eagles, as well as large numbers of Common Mergansers, a few Mallards, and a lone American […]

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Dancing in the Rain

By Jim | Published October 28, 2015




While photographing the covered bridges of Madison County, Iowa, several small trees had wonderful, red fruit on them (persimmon trees?). When the cold rains came down on one of my days there, I went back to the Cedar covered bridge where I had seen these trees, and captured some closeup images with raindrops hanging from […]

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