Snowy Owl in flight

Luckily for me I live near in area where a few of these beautiful birds decided to take up residence for the winter. I have been watching and capturing images of them almost daily, early and late, for the past 3 months. I have many images of them in natural terrain but very few acceptable images of them in flight. ( when left undisturbed they don't fly much during the day as far as I can tell ) Here is one where I got lucky. I was watching this Owl on a small dune at about 4:30pm waiting for sunset light when I could tell she got interested in something behind me. She was on full alert sticking her neck up and swaying. Sure enough she took off and watching her through my lens at a distance I saw her chase a Great Horned Owl out of the top of a small evergreen. Very cool to watch. In any case, I got a burst of sharp Snowy Owl in flight images with the Atlantic behind. I can't really decide if I like the wings up or down better.

1/4000, f6.3, auto ISO 560, D850, 500 f4 E + 1.4III

Attachment 174189

A lovely shot, John, and what a thrill it must have been to watch. Nice work using the bird's behavior to tip you off to the impending flight. Good light. I hope you'll post the up-wing version, although nothing wrong with this pose in my book.

Exceptional capture, John. The afternoon light is beautiful, so is your handling of the blacks and whites. Love the tops of the grasses, sand, Atlantic, and great shade of blue in sky. Well done, and I like the wings down.

Geoffrey




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This is a wall hangar! conrats. I love the colors, the clear details on the owl and the top of the dune grasses. Well done.

Nice light, good down wing stroke and the grass adds to the image. Well done

Hi John,
Terrific flight shot. I like the wing position and all else looks spot on too. Nice one.
Allen

Really nice. Love the wing position and the colors. Nice to have the top of the dune showing as well. I'd love a shot like this of them. Actually probably going tomorrow to try and get one.

Agree with everything said above and the ruffled feathers up top add to the whole image .Great stuff.So has the 850 helped with the business of getting on to them and hanging on? Looks like it.

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Originally Posted by Ian McLachlan

Agree with everything said above and the ruffled feathers up top add to the whole image .Great stuff.So has the 850 helped with the business of getting on to them and hanging on? Looks like it.

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Thanks Ian - When I first started shooting with the D850 I was not sure. When I got a tack sharp image it really popped but I was getting a lot of soft images compared to my D500. Over the last couple of months I have refined my long lens technique, upped the shutter speed and turn off VR when shooting 1/1600+. My keeper rate is now about the same as with the D500 including BIF. So bottom line I think the conventional wisdom on the D850 is proving to be correct. If you can fill the frame at any dimension above DX then it is a great camera with fantastic IQ. If you are cropping below DX then the D500 gives better IQ, is cheaper, lighter and gets 10fps making it the better option.

Really loving this one John. It all blends so well, and what a great flight pose. Very well done.

Will

Lighting, color, and wing pose are beautiful. I'd love to see a bit more of the reeds/grass if you've got the crop for it!

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Originally Posted by Dorian Anderson

Lighting, color, and wing pose are beautiful. I'd love to see a bit more of the reeds/grass if you've got the crop for it!

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Welcome Dorian and thank you. Unfortunately this is the bottom of this frame and I don't have enough pp skill to add canvas and make the grass look acceptable. I have a wings up pose that looks great but I lost the grass keeping the owl in the frame. I also have the owl on the dune before she took off so I may experiment with moving pieces parts and see if I can put the top of the dune in one of flight images.