This little cutie-pie Burrowing Owl was photographed at a nest with 4 owlets. A friend of mine made me a perch to test, and I figured I'd give it a whirl, not really knowing how the owlets would react. I set it up outside the ropes, and as you can see sat some distance away (having photographed this at 1000mm.) Within about 5 mins, one of the owlets approached the perch with curiosity. Once he realized it wasn't a threat, he jumped right up on it. I had already positioned myself with the green background and sat down on the ground waiting. The light was a little high as you can see from the catchlight higher in the eye and the shadow on the right eye, but I was pretty happy the owlet took to the perch so quickly and squawked for me! The fact that I can see it's feet so clearly doesn't hurt either.
Canon 1D3, Canon 500L & 2.0 @ 1000mm
F11, 1/1000sec, ISO 640, manual mode
Feisol tripod, Jobu head
Beautiful Owlet, A bit of a head turn to get both eyes in sunlight would be nice.
Curious, why are you posting in the ETL forum.
Most of us learn from you.
Thank you, Dan. I appreciate your words. I've been asked to help out a little bit in ETLsince they are shorthanded. I am happy to lend a hand!!! There was a time when a number of photographers on BPN were offering me advice and critiques which is one of the reasons I learned so much.
Hi Marina ,I too am interested in your thought process ,as to why to didn't Dodge the darker eye ? I really like all the details in the photograph ,exp. the perch !
Hi Marina ,I too am interested in your thought process ,as to why to didn't Dodge the darker eye ? I really like all the details in the photograph ,exp. the perch !
Thank you for writing. I just went and checked , Clyde. The answer is that I did dodge the eye a little bit in Viveza. Had I gone any further with it, it would have hurt rather than helped the image.
Lovely photo, Marina! Lovely green bg, excellent pose and open gape too. In this situation with the high sun I would've used a bit of fill flash to open up the shadows. But it's hard to find something to critique in this beautiful photo!
This is an awesome capture of a reasonably rare bird. Technically speaking, this image is spot-on, re: exposure, composition, etc. Yes, it might have been nicer to be able to capture the owlet trying to stare you down, but what was it the 'Stones' said some years ago? Ah - yes: "You can't always git whatcha want ... "
What seems most interesting to me is how the BG is so oof (which looks wonderful) since you used an aperture of f-11. The BG must've been way-way back there.
A good friend who lives in Polk County (just a few miles from where das Meister (Arthur Morris) resides) has been telling me since Thanksgiving that he's got a Burrowing Owl nest on his acreage. We looked for them on Thanksgiving w/o results. When I phoned him last week to wish him a Happy New Year he told me that he keeps seeing them whenever he checks on his cattle, so I'm heading that way, hopefully within a couple weeks.
BTW: I've always thought that Burrowning Owls breeding season here in Florida was later in the year (climate change maybe?).
Thanks for sharing this on ETL - very inspirational. I've been lurking for quite a while and hope to soon begin posting here.
This is an awesome capture of a reasonably rare bird. Technically speaking, this image is spot-on, re: exposure, composition, etc. Yes, it might have been nicer to be able to capture the owlet trying to stare you down, but what was it the 'Stones' said some years ago? Ah - yes: "You can't always git whatcha want ... "
What seems most interesting to me is how the BG is so oof (which looks wonderful) since you used an aperture of f-11. The BG must've been way-way back there.
A good friend who lives in Polk County (just a few miles from where das Meister (Arthur Morris) resides) has been telling me since Thanksgiving that he's got a Burrowing Owl nest on his acreage. We looked for them on Thanksgiving w/o results. When I phoned him last week to wish him a Happy New Year he told me that he keeps seeing them whenever he checks on his cattle, so I'm heading that way, hopefully within a couple weeks.
BTW: I've always thought that Burrowning Owls breeding season here in Florida was later in the year (climate change maybe?).
Thanks for sharing this on ETL - very inspirational. I've been lurking for quite a while and hope to soon begin posting here.
-leon
Hi Leon:
Thanks for writing. How about the old adage "There's no time like the present." ? The sooner your get started, the quicker you will learn and reap all the benefits.
Yes, the BG was distant, Leon, which makes for a more pleasing BG. I used F11 b/c it's the best aperture when using a 2x teleconverter on an F4 lens [1 stop down from the minimum aperture (F8 in this case) with the teleconverter on.]
The burrowing owls are normally photographable in Florida all year. However, they usually begin sitting on eggs sometime in February. Incubation is about 28 days. I usually begin photographing the chicks late March and into April. They don't normally come out of the burrow for the first week or so.
I will be waiting patiently (maybe not so patiently) to have the pleasure of seeing your first post! :)
Burrowing Owlet on Set Up
Originally Posted by Clyde Hopper
