Andrea Kappler Photography

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Andrea Kappler Photography

The official page of Indiana nature and wildlife photographer Andrea Kappler. I'm based in Southern Indiana.

I'm a nature and fine art photographer living and working in Evansville, Indiana. I do NOT do portraiture, weddings, or newborn photography. I travel the Southwestern Indiana region looking for parks, recreation areas, and natural formations of interest to me. I sell my images on two platforms: Fine Art America (https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/andrea-kappler.html) and Andrea Kappler Photography (https://andreakappler.zenfolio.com). I also blog about my travel and photographic experiences here: https://indianaphotographer.wordpress.com/. I encourage you to take a look at my art galleries and follow my blog. I hope you enjoy what I see through my eyes!

10/28/2026

I noticed this adorable Least Chipmunk (Tamias minimus) when I was at my photography workshop in Colorado last month. Our group had been looking for a place to cross a stream and photograph a waterfall, but the stream was too high, so we headed back to our vehicles.

On the way back, I saw this chipmunk scamper across my path, then stop with some food. I changed to my long lens and took over 180 shots of it. One other photographer stopped with me and took pictures too, while the rest of the group just kept going. Despite being out West with elk and moose wandering around, this was the best wildlife shot I got! 🐿🥰

10/21/2026

The Milky Way next to the abandoned Yankee Girl Mine in the San Juan Mountains near Ouray and Guston, CO, on Oct. 2, 2026. This is one of several pictures I took on my recent trip to Colorado for a landscape photography workshop, although this photo was taken after the workshop ended. Any time I'm out West and there's a chance for clear skies during Milky Way season, I will find a way to shoot it!

This is one of the most famous and historically rich silver mines in that area. The former mine is located along the Million Dollar Highway that connects Silverton, CO, with Ouray. Throughout the time I was shooting this scene with another workshop participant, the mine was lit up by the headlights of vehicles navigating the crazy, twisting curves of the Million Dollar Highway.

The Yankee Girl Mine opened in 1882 by prospector John Robinson, after he found high-grade silver ore on Red Mountain. This ore was worth about $10,000/ton, because it didn't need preliminary processing and was shipped straight to the smelter. At its peak, the mine extracted roughly 10 tons of ore daily, carried downhill by a 75-mule train to Silverton.

Several factors lead to the downfall of the mine: water and corrosion deep in the mine shaft, a silver crash during the Panic of 1893, and a surface fire in 1897 that partially closed the mine. Collapsing market values forced the mine to completely shut down in 1898.

For the photographers viewing this image, it's a composite made up of multiple shots. The mine structure was photographed with an exposure to reveal the building, then it was combined with the background shot of the sky. The sky is a composite of 20 images combined in Starry Landscape Stacker, edited first in Lightroom Classic, then the combined image was created and edited in Photoshop, with a few final edits in Lightroom.

Canon EOS Ra, Rokinon 14mm f/2.8mm lens, ISO 6400, 15 sec., 4800K

09/30/2026

This is a picture of the Colorado River at Dead Horse Point in the Dead Horse Point State Park, UT, from September 12, 2022, when Danny and I visited the park. I'm just now getting around to editing it because I was intimidated by the beauty of this scene and I didn't know how to bring out the colors and the sheer depth of field my eyes saw from this spot. I felt as though the camera couldn't capture what my eyes and mind saw, much less express to the viewer the awe I felt at while standing at this overlook.

This picture is actually a panorama composed from 6 horizontal shots, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. I made other sets of shots for other panoramic views of this scene, but they included too much detail for the eye to look at, so I decided to edit and share this view with you.

I also wanted to share it because I'm currently in a landscape photography workshop in Ouray, CO, with a group of photographers I met online over the course of the past year. I've been learning from them, and from the workshop instructors, how to edit my images so they are more impactful to the viewer. Perhaps after I return home from this workshop, I'll have more information and enthusiasm for processing whatever pictures I take during the workshop- and maybe apply my new knowledge to some older photos.

09/23/2026

On August 19, 2026, I was sitting on our patio watching hummingbirds in the (rare) rain we got this summer. This hatch-year juvenile male Ruby-throated Hummingbird had been sitting on this hosta stem, letting me take zillions of pictures of it as it posed for me. Then as I was snapping away, it turned to fly towards me, allowing me to capture this pre-flight, ballerina-like pose.

Note the patches of ruby-colored feathers on the throat- the light was just perfect to capture their brilliant colors. When this hummingbird is mature, his whole throat will be covered with red feathers.

This the closest I've ever sat to a hummingbird while photographing it with a telephoto lens. The only crop to this photo is to the left side, where there was no need for a ton of empty space. This little ballerina had plenty of room to take off and fly away!

09/16/2026

On Monday evening (9/14/26), Dana and I had planned to shoot the Milky Way somewhere near us before it was no longer visible for the season. For weeks in advance, we examined maps online, discussed particular locations we'd either been to before or ones we thought would be good to try, and we used several different photo planning apps to predict the location, timing and path of the Milky Way.

We thought we had nailed down the date and the location, but the weather foiled us with clouds on Sunday evening. On Monday the weather was much better- in fact, it was downright beautiful. I had chosen an old iron bridge as our target, one we'd crossed on many of our backroad travels. My vision for the photo was to have the bridge in the foreground, with a starry night and the Milky Way above it.

We met at the bridge only to find out it was permanently CLOSED! And we needed to be set up on the other side of it. We walked across the bridge and quickly discovered there weren't any good spots to get ourselves set up to capture what I had envisioned for this scene. We gave up, walked back to our vehicles and went on a wild goose chase, led by Dana, rushing to beat darkness and find a perfect spot to shoot the Milky Way.

We eventually settled on DNR parking lot with a south-facing view over an open field near Hovey Lake. There we were able to see and photograph the Milky Way for the next 3 hours. The perfect day turned into the perfect night, with low humidity, comfortable temperatures, and several Barred Owls hooting to one another in the woods behind us.

When we finished shooting at that spot, we went to Hovey Lake, where we went to the boat ramp. Despite super bright lights there, I was able to take this shot of these dead/dying Bald Cypress trees standing in the water, with part of the Milky Way overhead. The bright glow on the horizon is Mt. Vernon, IN. Oh, and if you zoom in and look to the right of the light pollution glow where it's reflected on the lake, you'll see a Great Blue Heron on a stump doing some night fishing! 🎣🌌

09/10/2026

A hatch-year juvenile male Ruby-throated hummingbird was upset with a Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) hanging out a little too close to the feeder recently. The hummingbird kept buzzing the mantis and menacing it. I believe the mantis was a female, because the abdomen on it was quite large, making me think it was probably going to make an egg sack in the near future.

Chinese praying mantises can and do eat hummingbirds, but this wasn't a Chinese praying mantis. I don't think this native praying mantis species was interested in eating the hummingbird. Several shots after this one, the mantis turned around and headed down the twig to move away from the hummingbird. I couldn't blame it for leaving. I mean, who wants an aggressive, possessive little bundle of buzzing energy circling you while you're chilling on a dead branch on a sultry hot summer evening? 😂

It was a lot of fun watching this bird-insect interaction. To my surprise, they did it all again the next day! Yes, the mantis was still there and the hummingbird still buzzed around it until it went back down the twig.

08/29/2026

Alrighty- here's my version of the deep partial lunar eclipse on August 27-28, 2026. I included 5 shots on each half of the eclipse to show the progression of the Earth's shadow across the face of the full Sturgeon Moon. Since this wasn't a total lunar eclipse, the top sliver of the moon was bright, as it was reflecting the light of the sun.

I almost blew off this partial eclipse because the last partial eclipse barely covered the Moon and I thought this one would be similar. Then I heard it was a deep partial lunar eclipse that would cover most of the Moon, so I figured I'd try it.

I'm glad I photographed it, even though my star tracker failed me and I had to punt at the last minute and find a different mount for my camera. Then the Barred owl showed up during the back end of the eclipse, but I was able to quickly adjust my camera to the spot behind me where the owl was sitting. I couldn't have done that if I'd been using my star tracker. So I guess things worked out in the end, because I got both an eclipse and an owl on the same night!

I hope you all got to see the lunar eclipse. They're always spectacular, whether or not you have all the fancy gear to photograph them! I learned that by being present, I'm prepared for whatever shows up. 📷🌝🦉

08/29/2026

While I was photographing the partial lunar eclipse from my driveway early this morning, this beautiful Barred owl flew up and landed on the neighbor’s roof over their garage. It was so dark I had to spotlight the owl with a flashlight, so I could take this cell phone picture of it.

I was so thrilled to see it, I forgot about photographing the eclipse! 😂 After I took the cell phone picture, I swung my camera around and I pointed it at the owl.

But don’t worry- I took plenty of pictures of the eclipse. You’ll see them soon.

08/18/2026

When we were on vacation in Northwestern Indiana a few weeks ago, I knew from my research that the Chicago skyline was visible across Lake Michigan from the beaches of the Indiana Dunes. I scheduled just one beach day at Porter Beach into our trip, not knowing what the weather would like, but hoping for the best conditions for this shot. To my surprise and delight, it was a fabulously clear day and the Chicago skyline was visible.

I shot this scene with a 100-500mm lens on my Canon R5 while sitting on a beach towel, with my camera and lens stabilized by my elbows on my knees. I took several pictures throughout the day, not sure which light I liked best on the scene. It turned out morning light was best- and there were no swimmers in the water to Photoshop out of the foreground. LOL

I'm so glad I tried to capture this shot, because the next day clouds and rain moved in from the west. This picture wasn't possible from any point along the shoreline because Chicago's skyline was shrouded in a deep gray haze. I hoped that at least one of my pictures from the previous day was good enough to edit and share with you. 🩵🏙️

08/10/2026

I haven't posted lately, but I am taking pictures- lots of pictures. I'm also spending time learning how the edit colors and tones in my images (I already thought I knew what I was doing, but I learned there's always more to learn!). This learning process means it's taking me much longer to edit images than it took me last year, but I hope the end result is worth it!

This a Bumblebee on one of my Gray-headed Coneflowers on July 11, 2026. I decided to play with a macro lens and a flash that day, to see if I could capture some busy bees on the native flowers in my garden. I try to shoot them when their faces are coming towards me as they pop over the top of the flower.

It's hard to believe, but just a month later, these flowers are already done blooming for the season. They're on to making seeds for the birds to eat over the winter.

I hope you've had a wonderful summer! I don't know about you, but I'm ready to give up the heat, humidity and mosquitoes for cool breezes and some fall colors. 😁

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Henderson, KY

Website

https://linktr.ee/andreakapplerphotography

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