Mielke Photography

Kate took this movie from the top of Mt Whitney. I make a cameo taking photographs of some fellow hikers right near the end of the movie. Kate filmed on her cell phone so the quality isn’t the best. Her iPhone had not arrived yet. Worse yet it did while we were in the backwoods so she missed out on receiving it since Apple didn’t hold it for her

Mt Whitney Summit

On a recent trip to Indianapolis I was lost in though ready to board the elevator and looked out the window. Better than the free breakfast for certain.

This scene greeted me from my hotel room this morning.

Woke up to this scene of Nasville from our hotel room.

Since I always seem to find myself in different states and many times airports I hope to capture images from my most frequented (seemingly) spots.

I love winter. That is a statement that I couldn’t make until the last 3 years though. That is when I discovered that located 3 hours from my house is the land of Bald Eagles. Now each January and early February I await the cold weather and make the trip to the Mississippi River as often as possible. It’s not uncommon for me to be photographing eagles at least every two weeks during this time frame.

This week was typical. I had some work in the area so on Tuesday I drove out to the driver, photographed till dark and then drove to my appointment. After my meeting i drove back to the river photographed until dusk and then headed home. Tuesday was a wonderful day for “shooting” and Wednesday was a dud. The above photo is from Wednesday’s session. This is the only bird I saw other than a duck.

I had a pleasant surprise on my most recent trip out west. I happened to be near Bishop, CA and as many photographers know this is the location of the Mountain Light Gallery. I happened to have a few extra moments and fulfilled my long term desire to walk around and experience many of Galen’s great photos in person and how they were intended to be experienced. Hanging on a wall instead of in a magazine.

The great ones where all there. Clearing Strom over El Capitan, Last Light on Horsetail Falls and my favorite the Rainbow over Potala Palace. I spent well over an hour looking at all of his classics having seen many of them over the years. Enough can’t be said about his climbing skill as well as his skill behind the camera.

As I was looking closely at the pictures, most if not all shot on film over some 30 years of his career, I could see and make out many of the emulsions, from having shot them myself. What I found interesting was how “soft” the images were. Nowadays we are spoiled with our many different ways to sharpen an image. We can use multiple different techniques. Unsharp Mask, High Pass sharpening and even a Nik filter that does if all for you aptly named Nik Sharpener.

I made a side-trip to Magee Marsh along the shores of Lake Erie yesterday. Beginning the second week of May this spot will be a birding hot spot for migrating warblers. They will rest along this last stretch of trees before they make the long flight over Lake Erie to Canada. They wait in this grove of trees for a tail wind to help them make the flight. Usually their next stopping place is Point Pelee National Park, this also is an amazing place to photograph the warblers as they stop and rest. Today though as I walk the Boardwalk trail I don’t see any warblers, what I am able to do is to fill up my own soul.

My van for work is a moving communications devise. I travel for work attached to my Blackberry as many are, I handle multiple levels of communications, from Vice Presidents to manufacturing people that make the end-user products that the product I sell goes into. I have to assess each of these conversations and ask questions for what is needed to help understand the situation the best way. I do this while driving, walking, flying. Each can be intense in it’s own way. What many people take for granted in what I do, I work at each day. I won’t say that my job is any more difficult than any other, but my understanding of the situation is what shapes decisions on both companies platforms.

Regardless of what you do for a living all have to find solace somewhere. I do in photography and the places I get to take side trips to. One such side trip is to Magee Marsh in Northern Ohio. The boardwalk trail is the highlight of where the warblers are in the month of May. There will also be a lot more bird watchers during that month than there are today. Today I have the trail to myself. You could hear the wood planks with each step I took. I like trails this way, they help me think and recharge.

For this short walk I didn’t even take a camera. As most know that is a rare occasion for me. I was enjoying the sites, sounds and smells of the trail and wildlife around me. After this trip I was listening to a podcast about Stephen Johnson at 7 Photographing Questions that helped me understand this better. Stephen spent some time describing how best to capture your photos. He felt you had to not only experience a scene with all of your senses and emotions, then you could practice your craft better.

It hadn’t occurred to me, but I do this very same exercise quite often in my photographic journeys. Times where I lock everything else except what I experience around me. No distractions, just the solitude. I had one such walk that I previously blogged about among the Bristlecone Pines. You sometimes need to feed your soul and then your able to practice your craft. I was doing some soul feeding today.

I walked into the wooded seclusion and from the moment I entered I could hear many different variety of birds, the red-wing black birds were the most recognizable, but there were also, jays, woodpeckers, robins and cardinals. Not being a birder myself there were many unidentifiable species. The seclusion was nice. The peaceful sounds, site and smells energized each of my senses that were used to road noise, traffic and the smell of old McDonald’s bags. Even though the morning was very cold, the brisk walk was worth every step. No camera, no phone and about ¼ mile on the trail and I didn’t have any worries.

I felt guilty for not taking any pictures of my experience a little later as I was leaving the park. Along the road out there are dikes on both sides of the road. Along those I spotted some Egrets and later a Blue Heron. From my car I hauled out the D300 and the long lens to capture the above shot. It was cold, windy and rainy. The bird didn’t move, just sat there for at least 10 minutes while I was there and even longer since I only observed for that long. My life had come back to me at this point. The phone rang and conference calls began, decisions were made and conversations and situations were analyzed. I clicked a few shots off of this Egret during one of those conversations; otherwise I just sat and watched, until he decided to fly away. Maybe he was doing the same, as I was earlier on the boardwalk. Filling his soul.