Great Horned Owl

[SCraig]

On the pic... and I know you had some serious limitations... i really wish we could see his other eye JUST a little more. I mean all of it would be good, but where you have almost none of it, I think it hurts the shot quite a bit unfortunately.

I agree, but he never opened his other eye more than just a crack, and kept it completely closed most of the time. I think there may be a problem with it or something because he really didn't want to open it.

This is what he looked like most of the time I was there. It also shows some of the problems I had with that stupid fence in post.

 

[SCraig]

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwow. Somehow I feel lucky to only be hated by big-eyed raptors.

That look made me very glad for the pane of glass between us!

hahahahahaha... but... but... my bunny has a lightsaber!!!!

It's a vewy, vewy small light saber to.

 

[sm4him]

Well, I admire your skills to be able to get rid of that fence in post!

I was gonna say that I think going to the zoo is the ONLY way I'm ever going to finally get pictures of an owl, but seeing that last picture and what you had to shoot through and then fix in PP, I think I'll just stick to what I can find out in the wide world. Which, evidently, just doesn't include owls.

A nature center right down the road from me has "Owl Prowls" sometimes, so I've been watching for one of those. I'm thinking maybe that will at least give me some idea of where they lurk, because I've explored every foot of that nature center and never seen an owl.

 

[SCraig]

Nice shot Scott!

Thanks, Kris.

It's a nice owl shot. Try cropping in tighter, from just left of the beak to past the ear on the right. With the left side out of focus it looks a little off, but I think filling the frame with the beak/eye/ear details would work really well.

Zoos are sometimes a real bugger to shoot in with all the fences and glass that gets in the way. In tight helps fight some of that.

I shoot at zoos quite a bit so I can usually get rid of the fence wire with no problems. This shot just had everything conspiring to prevent one though. I was using my Sigma 150-500 and that lens has a minimum focus distance of 8'. This shot was taken at 11'. I could have gotten about 3' closer which would have helped a great deal with the fence wire in the shot, but there was a rail fence there to prevent people from getting any closer, so I was as close as I could get. The distance was just enough that I couldn't get the DOF I wanted on the Owl without getting more of the fence in focus to. I tried various apertures from F/11 to wide open and this shot was the best compromise. At smaller apertures I got more owl but I got more gray blur from the fence as well.

I'll look at cropping it a bit tighter though. Good idea, thanks.

 

[SCraig]

Well, I admire your skills to be able to get rid of that fence in post!

I was gonna say that I think going to the zoo is the ONLY way I'm ever going to finally get pictures of an owl, but seeing that last picture and what you had to shoot through and then fix in PP, I think I'll just stick to what I can find out in the wide world. Which, evidently, just doesn't include owls.

A nature center right down the road from me has "Owl Prowls" sometimes, so I've been watching for one of those. I'm thinking maybe that will at least give me some idea of where they lurk, because I've explored every foot of that nature center and never seen an owl.

This was a bad example of shooting at a zoo so don't let it discourage you. Normally shooting with a wide open aperture as close to the fence as possible will completely make it disappear, I do it a lot at the zoo here. This shot just had everything right at the perfect spot to make it tough. The good thing about it was that I'll NEVER get within 11' of an owl in the wild.

Knoxville supposedly has a pretty decent zoo, and one of these days I'm going to get up there and see. Take a look at it, zoos are great places to shoot.

I have three owls living right around me now. I hear them just about every night hooting back and forth at each other. I found the spot that one of them perches on, and it's a gorgeous shot on top of the highest limb of the highest tree around here, straight into the setting sun. I've seen him sitting there many times, but each time I try to catch him with a camera he doesn't show up.

 

[JacaRanda]

Beautiful bird.

BTW, these guys HATE me. I dunno why, but EVERY single great horned owl I have EVER been within 10' of glares at me and hisses at me. It's realy bizarre. We're talking about 6 different birds now.

They really don't dig on bunny's walking upright