Evening Light Short-Ear

[Steve Large]

Hi Everyone,
Here is an image created yesterday as the sun was setting over the estuary. Hope you enjoy this. Kind of thought the background looked like northern lights.

Stats: Canon EOS-1D Mark4, 500mm + 1.4X, ISO640, 1/800 at F/5.6

Some filtering in PS as usual. Background noise handled by Topaz.

Take care and good light,

Steve

[Joe Senzatimore]

very fine BIF image. Light was on your side and you took full advantage. Well done.
Goota love the stare.

[Shawn Zierman]

The background is sweeeet. Looks like oof dogwood, with lots of yummy color variations.
Tricky exposure with the off axis lighting, but I think you really nailed it here.
Sharp details/flight pose.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful job, Steve. I really like the owl's pose and intent look, and that background has lovely colors. I agree you did great with tricky light and I'm pretty impressed with your sharpness at that SS.

[James Fuller]

Great light. Nicely done.

[Petros Petrou]

Great flight image. You handled the light nicely and the owl really pops from the background.
I am jealous since I have been trying for some time to get a nice photo of this species
without sucess so far. Well done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

You are right when you say the BG looks like the northern lights! I like what you did here, very appealing. IMO the face area could uses a touch more sharpening for web presentation though.

[Steve Large]

Hi Guys,
Sorry to have not gotten back to you sooner. Thank you for all of the lovely comments on this shot. The owls were playing keep away for most of November but have now become more ardent on their hunt for food. This makes them come closer while hunting as they are not as concerned with us photographers any more. At least that is what I have been experiencing lately. The light has been real harsh on the sunny days and can come from awkward directions so you have to pick your shots.

The strength of the light is also pretty low this time of year so I try to keep the shutter speed down to allow shooting at around F/4.5 to F/5.6. Sky shots end up typically being between 1/1250 and 1/1600 sec and shots with complex backgrounds end up around 1/1000 to as low as 1/800sec. This doesn't usually present much of a problem because the short-ear's wing beats are typically quite slow and "moth-like".

Short-eared owls seem to have a predictable hunting pattern so all I do is find a good spot where this pattern overlaps and I wait there until they fly by. It can certainly be a long waiting game but it pays off in the end.

Anyway, thanks again for tuning in and all of your comments.
I will try to capture more interesting shots of the short-ears in the near future,

Steve

[Corey Hayes]

Great shot, I have heard these are in my area but I have never seen one would love to though, very sharp looking bird.