Barn owl

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hand held Canon 1DX Canon 500mm f4 & 1.4TC III Auto ISO 400, 1/1600 sec f5.6 (Large crop)
Not one of my best I have to admit but it is the first barn owl shot I have managed to get since last year. I have been watching the nest on a web cam and we all thought the eggs had not hatched so we gave up. My friend emailed me last night to say two chicks had appeared to I was off and out first thing this morning.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the dangling feet, setting, layered composition and wing position. I would take a little off our right and add it to the other side but that is personal preference. Look forward to seeing more Jonathan!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Jonathan!

A very cute little owl - I enjoy the environment in this frame, and especially the layered BG:) In terms of comp, I too am tempted to take off a bit from the right.

I personally feel the image could do with a bit more punch, not sure it can handle it after a large crop but worth playing around with some levels and curves adjustments (applied selectively).

Love the pose from the owl (is she about to land?), wing position, the little heart-shaped face looking down and so focused - a very special capture I enjoyed viewing tonight, thank you Jonathan!

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Very nice Jonathan, I think it was a good call to retain the sharp grasses in the FG, for me it adds something more.

TFS
Steve

[William Dickson]

Brilliant capture Jon, love it all. Again I like your drop crop as you did with the puffin :S3: Great work, well done

Will

[keith mitchell]

Jonathan agree with Will that crop works well for me, typical hunting Barn Owl that you have captured beautifully, great work.
What is the Yellow bg?

Keith.

[Mike Poole]

Classic Barn Owl shot Jonathan, I love to see these in their environment, I'm looking forward to seeing more now you know he's out and about

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the encouraging comments everyone. The background is a field of wild flowers predominantly buttercups and the more distant bits are the River Dee and North Wales at the top.
I was out again today, I got a few more shots but I forgot that I had a six spot burnett moth pupa to photograph and whilst I was out it emerged!:e3

[Marina Scarr]

First of all, any barn owl shot is a good image in my eyes since I've never even seen one. However, I feel you are selling yourself short on this one. This is a very fine image, Jonathan!!! The layers of environment you have included here are pretty special, esp those wispy grasses in the FG You captured some terrific behavior here! Agree the image needs a little pop. I did a linear curve adjustment on it and it gave it the punch I think it needed. This may be a large crop, but it retained a lot of details.

May I ask your reasoning for shooting wide open with a TC and at only ISO 400 when you were using a 1Dx?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Marina I shoot wide open to gain the lowest ISO, OK Optical performance may be slightly compromised but that is primarily around the edges, the subject was more central so I don't think it would be affected unduly also DOF is not an issue at these distances.
The ISO was auto I had preset the shutter and aperture in Manual mode. I should have given +1/3 to + 2/3 exposure compensation but it was difficult to do in flight, the previous images taken were with trees as a background so then the exposure was better. In retrospect I could have increased exposure but I didn't want to lose a shot.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Mate,
This kind of really rocks. What I'd love, if you have space, is more of a vertical comp with the bird nearish to the upper right ROT intersecting spot.
Love the floating appearance, these owls really are one of my faves. I rarely see one in the open during the day locally.
You guys are lucky for that reason!

Thanks for sharing. I really like this with the soft lighting Jonathan

You're talking about exposure. Are you in full manual mode? Should not make a difference then with the BG as long as the light does not change. You expose for the bird. :S3:

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular image, Jonathan.
Great show. Nice FG and BG.
Lovely composition. Love the owl with raised wings, fanned tail feathers and dangling feet.

Regards,
Satish.

[Doug Brown]

Strong image with nice habitat and a cool hunting pose. You pulled off the shot at 1/1600 and ISO 400 at f/5.6, but with overcast skies I probably would have gone with full manual exposure and pushed my ISO to 800. That way you would have had the correct exposure regardless of the BG the owl flew against. And you would have had a little room to play with SS and aperture; freezing the bird while hunting requires less SS than freezing it in true flight.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Strong image with nice habitat and a cool hunting pose. You pulled off the shot at 1/1600 and ISO 400 at f/5.6, but with overcast skies I probably would have gone with full manual exposure and pushed my ISO to 800. That way you would have had the correct exposure regardless of the BG the owl flew against. And you would have had a little room to play with SS and aperture; freezing the bird while hunting requires less SS than freezing it in true flight.
I agree Doug in fact the very next day I set the speed to 1/2000 and determined the correct exposure from a reading off the field and used that for all the shots, obviously periodically checking to see if clouds were affecting exposure.