Barn Owl in flight II

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is my only other image I can accept thus far of the flight shot attempts on my own. It's 60% of the original frame. How I wish the owl was a few meters closer. I am still happy as the face appears sharp enough to me. :) You should see how many soft ones I have in perfect poses, much closer. :(

30D, 300/4L, ISO400, f/8, 1/125th, 430EX at 0 EC, beamer, HH, manual focus, manual mode

[Randy Stout]

Akos:

This is my favorite, I like the sense of him coming out of the gloom, which is where he does his work.
The flash effect is more subtle because of the distance from the flash. Like the foot position too.

This has been a fun series. Keep it up (do take a nap occasionally though)

Cheers

Randy

[Ramon M. Casares]

I can imagine the difficulty of getting this image, I can also imagine how many soft one you might have as I have tryed this a few times and I know it is not at easy... I like the pose, and detail, exposure and crop, a tad more contrast and saturation might help IMO.
Congratulations!

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Akos: These shots are very nice. The technique you use to capture these images is amazing. I surprised you got the keepers you did. The way the wings merge/disappear into the night dose give this the impression of "coming out of the gloom" as Randy stated. I find the effect to be very pleasing. The pose and eye contact makes this an engaging image in my opinion. Thanks much for sharing.

[Aidan Briggs]

While this is a lovely image, with a good comp, exposure, and wing position, I prefer your other Barn Owl in flight post

[Ed Cordes]

This must be extremely hard to do. I like the exposure and the face on pose. The slight wing blur on the left of the frame gives a good motions perspective. The bright owl against the black BG is striking.

Wish it were mine!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

this is definitely sharp enough, with great DOF and the real sense of the 'silent hunter'. well done bro!

[Jay Gould]

Mate, this image flies to the top of the scale!! Love it. You have depicted the owl coming from no where and going some where. You did good.

[Stu Bowie]

Hey bro, excellent flashwork, and just love the angle flying towards you. He really pops from the night sky. Very well captured.

[Dave Barnes]

The angle, lighting, comp and pose are great.
I am green, this is a super series.

[Graham Smith.]

Very nice shot Akos,
I long for the day that I have a chance to photograph these amazing birds.
I am impressed by your flashworks, but I can't help but be concerned by the use of flash for night-time BIF shots. Is this a safe practice??

[Harshad Barve]

lovely flight shot with details and tack sharp , killer BG
TFS

[Lorant Voros]

Akos,

I don´t know how you can make these incredible images with these circumstences. This one rocks maybe more than the others...lighting, composition, pose, detail are great. Congratulations.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thank you for the feedback, Graham, sorry for not noticing your question earlier. Here is a thread (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40704)which another person started and there is some discussion relating to your question. My mate, Frank Harrison, who is also a BPN member and a zoologist has sent me a long reply as to what his reasoning is for the flash NOT being harmful as opposed to what I had quoted from a professor acquaintance of mine in the thread that is linked above. Naturally, the welfare of the animal is my first consideration. :)

Frank had also had the pleasure of having studied a pair of Barking Owls (Ninox connivens) in Townsville for seven years. Lucky man and frankly (no pun intended) an animal behavioral expert IMHO!