Great Grey Owl

[John Harper]

Hi There

A shot of a Great Grey Owl at the Hawk Conservancy (http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/index.htm) in pretty poor light, taken this afternoon, as i get used to the 1DMKIII and its fantastic high ISO performance. the AF also seems to be very good after the sub mirror fix and using the new 1.3 firmware.

I have some in flight shots that i will post over the coming days but i am very pleased with the camera overall.

John

EOS1DMKIII
EF 500mm F4L
ISO 3200
1/1000 @ F4

http://www.portviewfitout.co.uk/grtgrey-portrait.jpg

[Lana Hays]

John
This is such a wonderful pose.....it reminds me of a glamor pose. At ISO 3200 I'm really impressed. Are you hand holding the 500mmL or using a tripod? As much as I love this image, I want more DOF. With 1/1000th ss I was just wondering if you could have increased the DOF.

[John Cooper]

A lovely portrait John of this magnificant owl. I think the soft lighting provided by the "poor light" has worked very well here. I would have liked a little more DOF so the other eye was as sharp as the right one. But nice image!

[John Harper]

Hi Lana - John

Thanks for the positive comments, the problem i think i have is I concentrate so much on trying to get sharp in flight images that whatever lens I shoot with (and its mainly the 500mm) I use wide open so as to get the fastest shutter speed I can. So when a portrait presents itself I never seem to think about dropping the shutter speed to go for greater depth of field :o

I shoot with the lens handheld for 90% of the time but have a Gitzo tripod, Kirk BH1 ball head & Wimberley Sidekick for if i am staying in 1 place.

For the shots of falcons etc that are wheeling and diving at fairly close range I have found the Wimberley too restrictive, and I get more birds in the frame using it handheld.

If the opportunity presents itself again i will try for a greater depth of field.

John

[Del Cockroft]

A very nice portrait indeed. I agree that a little more DOF is needed and the image would have been PERFECT.