Eastern Screech Owl (gray morph)

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi - This is a gray morph Screech Owl that I found behind our house in some thick bushes near where the owl nestbox was.

There were some Bluejays making alot of noise and my Dad and I grabbed my camera and we went to see if it was an owl.

I made a mistake on this one, though, and I set my ss too high thinking that he would fly when he saw me, and I wanted to capture that.

But he just sat there. So, my aperture was too low for a portrait shot, and my ss was too high. Also there was alot of leaves to shoot through and around.

I cropped about 25% and did some noise reduction on the background, twice. Then I increased the saturation on the eyes and sharpened the owl a bit.

I hear a few of these owls at night making a lot of noise in our yard, so I know they're still around. I'm going to try to find him again on Sunday. I have a photo of the rufous one from May, but its kind of hidden in some leaves and a bit dark. I cleaned out the nest box so I hope they come back again.

Here's my first shot of the gray one.

Canon 7D
Canon 300mm f/2.8

ISO 320
1/1600s
f/2.8

[Loi Nguyen]

Ashley, good to see you continue to have luck with owls. The OOF leaves are distracting and I would suggest a vertical crop to focus more on the owl. F2.8 DOF is very shallow as you already know, so it is tough to keep everything in focus. Your ISO is 320, I see many people here on this Forum shoot beautiful images with the 7D at ISO-800. Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Ashleigh.

love the eye contact and the natural vignetting. very cool.

he does look a bit soft, I think it is because your view was partially block by some leaves and branches...not much you could do about that. well done!

[adrian dancy]

A nice subject here; you are so lucky to have such a bird in your garden! I think your self assessment is correct. However, given your close proximity to the bird and the busy nature of the habitat it would have been unlikely that you would have succeeded on a successful flight image. So your effort might have been better spent 'working the bird'. Closing down the lens And changing ISO may have allowed you to get a bit more detail whilst still retaining the owls 'secret world' look. I do like images of birds or animals peering through vegetation with shallow depth of field but the face (particularly the eyes) and surrounding features need to be critically focused and sharp.

I presume the camera/lens was hand held and you were on Al servo and there was no breeze?

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi yes, AI Servo and no breeze. Will try One Shot and close down 2-3 stops if I find him this weekend. Also up the ISO.

Thank you all!

[Bill Dix]

Nice job catching this handsome fellow. Exposure looks good. Your self-critique and good advice above will help you nail the next one.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi yes, AI Servo and no breeze. Will try One Shot and close down 2-3 stops if I find him this weekend. Also up the ISO.

Thank you all!

Ashleigh,

Try not to use one shot AF for birds, they are alive and move. your pictures will be soft if they move.

good luck

[adrian dancy]

I've just twigged your age and must say you have done well. Good luck should you get the chance again (I'm sure you will).

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot.
I really like the stare it is giving you and I also like the view of it's habitat.
Well done.