Burrowing Owl In Flight

[Barry Ekstrand]

Another Burrowing Owl shot from a couple of weeks ago in Lubbock, TX, this one in flight. Processed in DPP 4 & PS CC.

Canon 5D Mk III, Canon 500mm f4L IS II, Canon EF1.4X III

ISO 800, 700mm, f5.6, 1/3200 sec, Manual Mode

All comments appreciated.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like the colour contrasts here, Barry. Are they rarely seen in flight?
At this size, it does look like the IQ is suffering and the bird isn't particularly sharp or in focus. The flight angle also isn't ideal...

[Barry Ekstrand]

Thanks Morkel, I appreciate the comments. These burrowing owls are in a large, wide-open field (nothing to hide behind) right in a housing development and they are pretty tolerant of people as a result. They share the field with prairie dogs and I believe the owls use abandoned prairie dog burrows / tunnels for their own. They will stand their ground quite a bit and then often duck down into the burrows, but there seems to always be a few that fly around the field when they think you are getting too close or when the prairie dogs start yipping their warning calls. This particular guy let me get pretty close and I was doing portraits of him when he suddenly took flight.

I agree the angle isn't great. On the sharpness, when looking at the original at 100%, the head and feet are sharp but wing feathers are soft, I assume the DOF wasn't correct due to the wide open f-stop I was using. Chalk it up to another lesson...

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

This one looks quite good in terms of exposure, light and BG. I only dislike the head angle as it is turned away from you. If mine I would have tried to blur the BG a tad more in PS.

[Marina Scarr]

You did well photographing this species in flight...not an easy task. I like the down stroke of the wing, and seeing the feet, the open beak and the side of the face although would have preferred a slightly better angle.