Snowy Owl

Sightpicture · Dec 3, 2013

A lot of reports from up and down the east coast coming in about the Snowy Owls. I took this photo in South jersey on the beach the other day using a Canon 5d Mk III with a 100-400mm lens. The Owl was out in the open and I did not want to get so close as to flush it. Image is heavily cropped and I had a difficult time trying to attain focus. Im a novice at this and any advice is appreciated.

WesternGuy · Dec 3, 2013

Nice shot, I always like to see shots of snowys. My only comment would be to watch your backgrounds. On the right side there is all that "brush" or whatever it is, that almost appears to be sticking out of its back. I am not sure, but it looks like is you had moved to your right, then you might have gotten it against a less cluttered background.

WesternGuy

robbins.photo · Dec 3, 2013

All in all it's a pretty good shot. Changing the perspective slightly as WG suggested might have helped, as it is if you have access to photoshop you can try to clone some of the brush out so you separate it from the owl, or with enough time remove it completely. The other suggestion I would make if your worried about focus, try stopping the lens down a bit. Looks like you have plenty of light here to work with so by reducing the lens aperture you can increase your DOF and get the entire subject in sharp focus. In this particular case though the entire owl looks pretty sharp but its something to keep in mind for future shots when you have enough light to work with and your worried about focus.

coastalconn · Dec 3, 2013

Welcome to the forum! I just got my first snowy 2 days ago. They are pretty tricky to get exposed correctly. You had brighter light than I did, which will make the whites really difficult to get exposed correctly.. I ended up going with spot metering so I could get the owl exposed somewhat correctly. Good call not getting closer because we have to try not to disturb these beautiful raptors as they are pretty worn out after their 4000 mile journey!

Sightpicture · Dec 4, 2013

Thank You all for the replies and your advice. Western Guy and Robin I didn't even think about that bush will know better next time. Coastalconn, those images of the Snowy you took are very cool. Is there another area of the bird you would focus on if you find you are having difficulty locking focus on the eyes?