Eastern Screech Owl

[Jason Lee]

Here was my first attempt at photographing a subject in near complete darkness!

Subject : Eastern Screech Owl

Equipment: Canon 7D w/ 400mm F5.6 lens / Canon 550EX speed light w/Better Beamer flash extender / Manfrotto tripod w/aftermarket gimbal head.

Preset Up: I placed the camera about 100 feet from the assumed landing perch. I manually focused the camera on the area where I had seen the screech owls landing. Using the red ambient LED light from my flashlight I was able to see when the owls landed. Photo was taken using a remote. 1/125 sec, F8, 400mm, ISO 400

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3786/9284996437_d38866968e_c.jpg

[Ian Cassell]

Good job on the set-up, Jason. I would be inclined to crop from the left yielding a vertical image and also crop some off below the bird as he is somewhat overwhelmed by the perch.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Very good use of the setup. I agree with Ian about the crop. Beautiful eyes! As with many bird images using flash, I wish the balance between natural light and flash could be a bit more natural, a bit less flash - but in this case as there was apparently no natural light, you did a great job with what you had.

Richard

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Hi Jason,

Very nice job in the darkness. I think the crop mentioned by Ian would be a good start.

If you get the chance to do this again, I might consider setting up a more natural perch and possibly using a pair of off camera flashes (although I'm no expert here).

Miguel

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm OK with the placement of the bird within the frame, but the bright twig touching the head and the perch both distract and overwhelm. Good job staking this little fella out though, and I like the look of the foliage in the BG. You should darken the pupils as they have the red flashed look to them. I also like the idea of putting a natural perch on top of this current one, especially if they seem to return to it regularly.

[Jason Lee]

Thanks everyone. Idealy a natural perch would be better for this image. Unfortunetly I didn't come prepared to photograph owls. I plan on returning to this area in the next few days to attempt it again. There were a few dead tree branches in the area I could bunji cord to that post, and hopefully get them to land on it.