Barn Owl

[Lance Peters]

Here is another of the barn owl series..

D3
Nikon 200-400 VR with 1.4 Converter @360mm
F8
1/60TH
800 ISO
-1.0EV
Manual Focus (before it got dark)
SB900 Manual Flash @ 1/16 TH Power
Handheld

PP -SOC - except for sharpening and setting a white point.

Comments welcome.

P.S. Hope the colour is right - have installed Windows 7 on my main machine and colour balanced the monitor from scratch - hopefully it right - I never take it for granted until I have produced a print an it is close to what I see on the screen (Monday I will do that)

[Gus Cobos]

Well composed and executed Mr. Peters...The color rendition is dead on...no color cast...this is one sweet image...the feel is over the top... I like it very much...tell me; how do you like Windows 7 ? My IT people at work tell me its an advanced super charged version of XP Professional...:D:cool:

[Lance Peters]

Hi Gus - lovin windows 7 - certainly feels a lot more responsive than Vista ever did.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Lance,

I like the head angle, how did you set manual flash. I measure feet and calibrate on the back of the flash, then play - /+ stops of light by changing distances markers. Is the flash maybe 1/2 stop over exposed?

I really enjoy pictures that include habitat, nice moment in nature. Well done friend.

Question - what are the blog entries regarding?

[Lance Peters]

HI Jeff - in this shot the flash is the main light - no ambient light present here at all - so I still want to push my whites to the far side of the histogram but still not have any of them over. In this circumstance I was adjusting the aperture only to adjust the exposure.

You might not have seen the details in the other post - basically it was Night time and Raining - too dark for auto focus to work, HENCE i manually focussed on the bird before it got dark and hoped he wasn't going to move around too much - I couldn't really see anything through the viewfinder once it got dark.
I waited until darkness because during the daylight hours he did very very little except sleep.

[Kerry Perkins]

Lance, these are beautiful and the exposure spot on! Just love the color of the foliage against the white plumage. Don't see any issues with your white point. When that D700X comes out I'm sure you won't be needing that D3, so just box it up and send it my way... :D

[Gordon McKechnie]

I really love these owl shots of yours, Lance. I won't hold my breath to ever see something as amazing as this near my office block (Luton, UK)!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Gordon - you never know - Very rare to see one of these guys in our area - without mentioning on such a low perch and in a reasonable setting - Could always wish for a better BG - less foreground etc - but it was such a nice encounter - sure was a gorgeous bird.

[Alfred Forns]

Looks like you will have a treasure of images from this bird Lance !!! Love it !!!

.... amazing about the OS :) ... feels more like XP !!! On the Apple side we look to going forward !!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Lance,

I did not see the other posts, but will review them in short order. What I asked above was did you use distance and stops to measure power (inverse square thing). I assume you used that method and looked at the back of the flash and read 1/16 power - correct - just trying to learn?

Now I see what you are saying, the shadows indicate that the ambient light was low to no and flash was main. What was your distance to subject.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jeff - distance to subject at this stage would have been about 20FT, No did not use that method - as it was dark couldn't read the back of the flash too well - went the same way I would have with ambient light - set my exposure and took a shot - checked the histogram and then adjusted accordingly (in this circumstance - by changing the aperture)
Knew the bird was not going to stay long once it was dark - so went with the easiest method that was going to produce the result - knew with flash as the mail light I could adjust the exposure via the aperture and this was easy to do without taking my shirt off the top of the camera (trying to protect it from the rain)

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Thanks, very well done.

[Harold Davis]

that's a beautiful bird, lance. is that blood on it's face or natural colors? i cant wait to see the others!!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Amazing that you even got a shot Lance. Well done. The whites look great, almost iridescent. Looking forward to more too.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Lance, an amazing image. How special to have him show up for you:)

_________
Cheryl