Barred Owl

[Mike Veltri]

I had a recent query concerning this site, and thought why not send it to Arthur Morris himself. Within about five minutes I had a return email from him.
I was so impressed I thought why not join as a member. So here is my first post as an official member, don't be too rough on me i'm new. :bg3:

Barred Owl
(Strix varia)

122398
Canon 1Dx - 300mm F/2.8 IS I
1/400s @ F/4 - ISO 400 - HH


Thanks for looking, :S3:
Mike Veltri


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[John Cooper]

Hi Mike - I never tire of seeing images of owls and this one is no exception.

love the alert pose here and the eye contact. Good perch for an owl and I like the inclusion of the surrounding habitat - the splash of green in the BG really adds interest. Very appealing!

[PhilCook]

Liking the mic of colors in this and little bits of added interest like the grass on bottom left, liking too the of background leaves as it makes an interesting but not overpowering backdrop......beautiful Mike

Cant believe how often I see daylight Owl images on this forum....I'm so envious, I'm lucky to see them at night let alone daytime

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mike, congrats on joining the 'members' club- We wont be too rough on you as long as you continue to post the high standard of this image. :w3 Perfect comp to suit the pose, and I like the alert stare. You have captured good detail on the head, and glad you left the grasses LLC. I do like how the owl is separated from the BG. Well captured.

[bhavya joshi]

Beautiful image.. Mike.. Like it too.. Wonderful perch and pose.. wonderful image ... TFS.

[Satish Ranadive]

Mike:
Every thing has been said about this magnificent image.Very nice composition with lovely green in BG and soft light.
Love the pose and way he is sitting on such narrow perch,showing his claws nicely.Nice colors and BG too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Nick Palmieri]

This is a great image of a cool bird on a nice perch. The environment in my opinion is very strong and really adds interest to otherwise fantastic shot! TFS

[Shawn Zierman]

Such a beautiful portrait. Great soft light quality. The fg and bg elements work very well here, adding interest and depth/dimension.
Of course with such a short focal length I'm wondering where did you take this? In a car? Out in the open? Did you use any type
of attractant? One does not just wander around with a 300mm bare and accidentally stumble upon something like this:bg3: Or does one?
Maybe I'm not doing something right...:bg3:
So any info into the "how" would be greatly appreciated.

[Mike Veltri]

One does not stumble upon them Shawn, but has to do a lot of leg work to find any owls.
And as far as walking around with a 300mm bare, I do it all the time as the 500 would be rather long for owls and is far too heavy. :S3:
My lens of choice when looking for winter owls is the 300 F/2.8 or the 70-200 F/2.8 IS II and an extender and flash.
As stated, there is an invasion of these owls at the moment, and if people were to look around they may be suprised and find one.
I doubt you can find any owls sitting in a car. :bg3:

To date there are about five of these owls within a half hour drive from my home. And snowy owls are also arriving in numbers.

Thanks for the comments, good or bad they are always appreciated.

Mike

[Daniel Cadieux]

A beauty!! Although the grasses in lower left are nice what I love most (apart from the subject itself) are the pine branches in the BG...very nice.

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice soft light, details and pleasing colours Mike (welcome as member too :5)
I would sharpen the chest/body of the owl a tad more...

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Mike! I like the pose, BG, IQ, sharpness and composition. I will have to look a little harder for the owls around here. Look forward to seeing more and welcome to BPN.

[Shawn Zierman]

"As stated, there is an invasion of these owls at the moment, and if people were to look around they may be suprised and find one."

As stated where? Your response to my post is the first place in this thread that I see anything "stated" about an invasion. Did I miss
something? During big invasion years (in Minnesota), owls can be found and photographed easily from one's car. I've seen many fine
images of owls created from cars. Heck, even Alan Murphy has shown an amazing great gray owl image he made from a vehicle...albeit
he was apparently standing in the back of a truck. There is nothing far-fetched about photographing owls from a vehicle. 500mm is
not even close to "too long" for owls, particularly if one is trying to avoid flushing them. Shorter focal lengths work for you, great...care
to share what the "leg work" is that you do to obtain such a wonderful eye level/perfect bg/fg control image of the owl? "Leg-work" is
vague and could mean any number of things. One of the things that I appreciate most about this site, is that photographers are
encouraged to give insight into how images are made. Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated.

[Mike Veltri]

"As stated, there is an invasion of these owls at the moment, and if people were to look around they may be suprised and find one."

As stated where? Your response to my post is the first place in this thread that I see anything "stated" about an invasion. Did I miss
something? During big invasion years (in Minnesota), owls can be found and photographed easily from one's car. I've seen many fine
images of owls created from cars. Heck, even Alan Murphy has shown an amazing great gray owl image he made from a vehicle...albeit
he was apparently standing in the back of a truck. There is nothing far-fetched about photographing owls from a vehicle. 500mm is
not even close to "too long" for owls, particularly if one is trying to avoid flushing them. Shorter focal lengths work for you, great...care
to share what the "leg work" is that you do to obtain such a wonderful eye level/perfect bg/fg control image of the owl? "Leg-work" is
vague and could mean any number of things. One of the things that I appreciate most about this site, is that photographers are
encouraged to give insight into how images are made. Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated.



"As stated, there is an invasion of these owls at the moment, and if people were to look around they may be surprised and find one."

Sorry this was attached to a post of the same shot in another forum. So I stand corrected.

2. 500mm is not even close to "too long" for owls, particularly if one is trying to avoid flushing them.

I would love to see you get an image of a Long Eared Owl or Saw-whet owl tucked in a pine tree with a 500mm.
And if you know the species, you don't have to flush an owl for an image. I have never flushed an owl for a photo.

3.Shorter focal lengths work for you, great...care to share what the "leg work" is that you do to obtain such a wonderful eye level/perfect bg/fg control image of the owl?

Yes, no problem if you want to go with me on a workshop, jk as I don't do this for money. If you really want to know, the bird was hunting as that is the only reason they are down in numbers and they are most likely next to starving. I watch the bird from a distance so it can hunt without being disturbed. When the bird dives for prey, if I am not in close quarters I will try for a flight shot. When it perches with prey I will put on a converter either 2x or 1.4x. and photograph the bird from a distance. If you knew about this species, you would know that it can be approached very closely. I was easily within minimum focusing distance with this owl. And got some great shots all from the same perch by walking around the bird. Which I may or may not post here at a later time.
The barred owl hunts in day light, unlike some owls that only hunt at night so nothing sinster here to see one in the day time in the open. Owls like the barred or Great Grey or Hawk Owls don't frighten much when approached properly as we are not a threat to them, and most likely they have never seen humans living in the boreal forests.

As far as how I obtained such wonderful Eye Level / Perfect Background and Foreground Control image of the owl.
I do know my gear and how to use it properly :S3:, but I don't think thats what you want to hear.

The dead pine tree stump that the bird was perched on in the tall grass was about 3' off the ground. So I knelt on one knee to get to eye level, set the 300 F/2.8 to F/4 to blur the pine tree that was swaying in the wind and took the shot. Oh and by moving around the bird I had the grasses to the left and a clear view of the perch.

Just to let you know, I have less sinister images of the bird in a red-pine a shitty looking leafless tree, in-flight, on the ground on prey and hundreds of other images from other encounters with this species. I can post an image taken with a friend of a Barred Owl with a Shrew, that was photographed "yes" with my 300mm F/2.8 "bare bones" as you say from about 12' away in a heavy snow shower. Also I have them in larger trees.


Oh and by the way I do know the rules here on BPN. It's not my first posting although I am a member now. Its more about your suggestiveness that there was something sinister going on with your "attractant" comment. Hopefully the moderators won't take offense to my post to you, as I don't take any offense in you suggesting an attractant may have been used. I think a better response from you may have been, could you please explain how the image was aquired?

Thanks Shawn so much for the friendly welcome to BPN.
Have a great Holiday Season, and good birds in the view finder.

Mike Veltri

[Shawn Zierman]

Mike,

Where in anything that I have posted to this thread did I use the word "sinister". You have read into something that is not there good sir.
I have no reserves at all about using attractants for owls which could include feeding them live mice, (which I do), or using audio calls, (which
I have not tried yet). There are portions of your last post that were exactly the type of information I was interested in, and thank you for
the response. I am familiar with Barred Owls (in Minnesota), and I can tell you that in my neck of the woods, they are one of the most
skittish of any of the regularly occuring owls. I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that geography, for who knows how many numbers of
reasons, factors in to birds being approachable in one area but not another. Florida birds for example, there are several species there that occur
in Minnesota, but one will hardly ever find them as cooperative this far north.....Mike, I am information seeking when I ask questions. You have
misunderstood something if you thought I was inferring you were taking some "sinister" approach in the making of the image. I actually appreciate
your blunt honesty in the last post and found it a much more refreshing and straightforward answer than the first go around. So, thank you,
and have a great holiday season yourself good sir:w3