Erich Stevens
08-03-2009, 12:07 PM
There is a burrow close to one of the roads that takes me to a nearby relative's house, so I have had the pleasure of driving by this owl family a couple of times a week for the last several months. Once I saw as many as three chicks standing by the burrow entrance, but for the longest time I have seen only one. Yesterday I finally got a chance to park the car, setup the tripod, and shoot for a while. This is one of the parents. Junior wasn't there.
I regret that I did not have a backup camera with shorter lens, because I missed out on a very unusual burrowing owl image. This parent, alarmed at first with my presence, did the bob and weave thing on his fence post perch, then took off straight toward me before I could back up (I was about 30ft. away). When he had closed half the distance between his perch and me, he shot up about 20ft. over my head and hovered there for 3 seconds to check me out...with beautiful outstretched wings and a penetrating yellow glare. Then he (or she) perched again and was unconcerned with me the rest of the time. These little guys don't fly much during the day, so I knew it was a very unique opportunity missed. Argh! But I am happy with what I did get.
This image was taken at about 9 AM with a Nikon D80, 300mm + 2x, ISO 400, 1/1000, f/5.6 I think (it's a manual lens). BG is a grassy field. Cropped a bit all around, sharpened the eyes, boosted the contrast and saturation.
I regret that I did not have a backup camera with shorter lens, because I missed out on a very unusual burrowing owl image. This parent, alarmed at first with my presence, did the bob and weave thing on his fence post perch, then took off straight toward me before I could back up (I was about 30ft. away). When he had closed half the distance between his perch and me, he shot up about 20ft. over my head and hovered there for 3 seconds to check me out...with beautiful outstretched wings and a penetrating yellow glare. Then he (or she) perched again and was unconcerned with me the rest of the time. These little guys don't fly much during the day, so I knew it was a very unique opportunity missed. Argh! But I am happy with what I did get.
This image was taken at about 9 AM with a Nikon D80, 300mm + 2x, ISO 400, 1/1000, f/5.6 I think (it's a manual lens). BG is a grassy field. Cropped a bit all around, sharpened the eyes, boosted the contrast and saturation.