This Snowy Owl had been sitting on a rooftop about 100 yards from the shore in Rye, NH for hours before I arrived. I was fortunate that I only had to wait 45 minutes before it leapt into the air. I only got off two frames before it was gone. Unfortunately, my reach is limited to a max of 400mm (almost everyone else there had 500 f/4 or 600 f/4 beasts, I felt soooo puny!), so this crop is of about 50% of the original frame which included the roof. I was using back button focusing, using the center point with expansion but at the point of exposure the bird had exited the zone. However, since it went essentially straight up and stayed in the plane of focus I got lucky. Processed with LR6.
Camera Model Canon 5D Mk III
AF mode AF Point expansion:surround (center point)
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Shutter Speed 1/2000
Aperture f/6.3
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exp Comp 0
ISO Speed 200
White Balance Daylight
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM with EF 2X III
Focal Length 400mm
This was the second frame I managed to get off before the owl flew away. In this case it appears that I was able to get a focus point back onto the bird, but on the trailing edge of it's left wing. A bit less cropping but similar processing.
Any sighting and chance to photograph a Snowy Owl is special. You did well with the exposure, and a nice blue sky. Tough to compose, I think a tad lower in the frame could work. I do wish it was lower than on a rooftop as the angle of inclination is a bit steep. Thanks for sharing: I do not miss the winter weather, but I do miss this winter visitor.
P.S. I understand wanting to show both images (it's a Snowy after all!!), but moving forward please keep to one (unless reposting a reworked version of the same image).
The sun to my back made exposure fairly easy, although I under exposed a bit in an attempt to protect the detail in the whites. Looking at the histogram I think I overdid it. I have never shot snowy owls before and was amazed at how quickly she rose, I estimate these shots to be about 10 feet above the roof she was sitting on and did not pan upwards fast enough to keep the owl properly framed so there is nothing more above unfortunately. I always considered 5fps fast (my old A-1 was rated at 5fps but really only did 4.5fps when you put film in the camera :) ) but only got off three frames when I realized she was moving, the two here plus a third that was a complete miss.
Sorry for breaking the rules - I will stick to one in the future.
I hear ya - Snowy Owls are incredible animals, and their power is quite something! Hopefully we get yet another break out year for them next winter :-)
Snow Owl
Reply With Quote
