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Michael Floy Photography

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United States
Decorah, IA
Michael Floy Photography

Decorah Area Landscape, and Nature photographer. I am in partnership with The Perfect Edge, were my work can be purchased.

My work has been published in Our Iowa and Inspire(d) Magazines as well as Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation's annual calendar.

05/16/2026

New categories announced for this year's Driftless Photography Contest at the Winneshiek County Fair

Thank you to The Perfect Edge for joining us again this year to make this fun contest possible!

05/08/2026

I went to the Decorah Prairie Garden this morning to see if any wildflowers were blooming and to see what I could find for birds to photograph. As luck would have it, I found a Female Red-winged Blackbird and a Male. I also was able to photograph several Tree Swallows that were in the process of building nests. They didn't seem to mind my presence, but I still kept a safe distance away so as not to alarm them. As I walked along the riverbank, I noticed a pair of Canada Geese and as I watched them, out came several little goslings. Mom and dad kept a close eye on me before escorting the little ones into the Upper Iowa River for a morning swim. Not a bad way to start the day!

05/03/2026

I have been trying for some time now to capture images of Wood ducks. They are a challenge as they are very wary of intruders but with some perseverance and getting up @ 5:00am to get into position, I was finally able to capture a few images that I am happy with.

Iowa Department of Natural Resourcesrces
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundationtion
Winneshiek County Conservationtion

04/25/2026

Cardinal Marsh is one of my favorite places to practice taking pictures of birds. You can usually find a wide variety of birds large and small to photograph and work on your skills as each will present its own set of challenges. I am still working on birds in flight and getting close enough to my subject without harassing them or causing them to take flight. I found several nest (Canada Geese and Trumpeter Swans) that I stayed clear of so as to not disturb the parent. Here are a few images of the Sandhill Cranes Blue-winged Teals and a Lesser Yellowlegs that I was able to photograph.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
Winneshiek County Conservation

04/04/2026

The thunderstorms last night brought plenty of rain with them, resulting in Flash Flood Warnings for our area, but the cooler weather and moisture clinging to the flower buds did make for some nice photography opportunities this morning.

03/30/2026

Larry Reis from the Winneshiek County Conservation, lead an informative walk at Cardinal Marsh this past Sunday. Larry spoke to a group of 12 about the migrating waterfowl that frequent the Cardinal Marsh area. He also pointed out several smaller songbirds that are in the process of migrating. While the winds were a little stronger than predicted, it was a nice day to get out, explore and learn more about the birds at Cardinal Marsh.

If you are interested in participating in one of these events, check out the events on Winneshiek County Conservations page. There are 2 events coming up, Birding for Spring Migrants at Walden Pond May 3rd and Searching for Shorebirds at Cardinal Marsh May 17th. You don't have to be an avid birder to attend but just might become one. Best of all, they are free of charge!

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Winneshiek County Conservation

02/11/2026

I explored a new area this morning in hopes of finding future photography compositions. I had never been to Cold Water Spring State Preserve until this morning. It has several areas that I am hopeful of revisiting this spring in hopes of photographing them in some early morning fog. I crossed the stream in several locations until I found an area that was a little too deep for the boots I had on. My wife would be proud that I did exercise some restraint and common sense! Here are a few handheld images from this morning's outing.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
Winneshiek County Conservation

02/01/2026

A little practice this morning hand holding my 200mm-800mm lens on some quick little birds. I do enjoy the eye tracking feature on the Canon R5 mirrorless camera, as it helps me keep the focus locked on their eyes. I was only able to capture one image of a Dark-eyed Junco as the others choose to stay behind branches or dart around too quickly. The House Finches were a little more accommodating. One of the Finches seemed to be a little bothered by me taking his picture and gave me a stern look!

01/03/2026

Today I took my new telephoto lens out to see if I could find any willing subjects for me to practice hand holding photography as opposed to my normal landscape tripod mounted photography. Most of the adult Bald Eagles were a little too far off for any good images, but I did manage to find a couple of juvenile Bald Eagles that didn't take off once I stopped. I also manage to capture a couple shots of some Canada Geese splashing/bathing and preening themselves along with 1 daredevil trying his hand at walking on ice. He slipped twice before finally mastering his stride.

12/31/2025

Just like a kid with his new toy, I couldn't resist trying the new lens out. This image was taken through a window with a screen on it and was handheld. The 1st image is original uncropped. With the lenses I had previously, I would have had to do a 50% crop to get the subject this big in the image. The 2nd image is a mild crop making the subject much larger. The benefit of not having to crop so much as I had to do in the past, is that the resolution will be much better and make better prints. I can hardly wait to get out in the woods to try it out on something much bigger!!! ;)

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Decorah, IA
52101

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