Up & Down

[Steve Canuel]

20D, 1-400L @ 365mm, f11, 1/125s, ISO 400.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the puzzled look of the owl on the right. Nice light and details, too. Are you saying that the survival chances of the one hiding are better?

[Steve Canuel]

I like the puzzled look of the owl on the right. Nice light and details, too. Are you saying that the survival chances of the one hiding are better?

Better for avoiding an attack by the hawks and coyotes that prey on them. The variation in personality of these birds even among siblings is pretty interesting. Some are very shy and will barely show themselves while I've had others actually run towards my car while bobbing and weaving. They're very attuned to anything in the the air and would often duck while watching birds flying in/out of their field of view. The burrow is a little bit safer although I did get to see a photo of a 4-5 ft bullsnake that had swallowed one of these owls and had been killed by the mate in failed attempt to save him/her.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks for the explanation, very interesting!

[William Currie]

I relly like this image nice work

[Tony Whitehead]

Very interesting image, Steve - cool expressions. My only suggestion would be a wider aperture the throw the BG more OOF

[Raymond Barlow]

superb shot Steve ... the owl peeking really make the image work.

[Steve Large]

Hey Steve,
another great shot here. I can't understand how you can get such good shots with your 100-400L. I did everything I could to get good shots with mine and could not even come close to stuff like this. Also used with a 20D like this shot but mine always seemed to come out soft or somewhat underexposed. To make a long story short, have not had that lens out of the bag since purchasing the 500L.

Take care,

Steve Large

[Steve Canuel]

Thank you all for the comments.
Tony,
Your suggestions is a valid one. When I took this I was still relatively new to photography and wanted to make sur ethey were both in focus. They were closer to being on the same focal plane than what I realized too.
Steve L,
I guess I got a good one (bought July 2005). This one was resting on a towel on my car door and most of my posted photos with this lens were supported by some other means beside me. Its not that my hands are that unsteady, I just can't seem to stand still.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Steve, This is a truly wonderful image. The second bird took me by surprise. I am not so sure that the shyer ones have a higher survival rate; if they did, that trait would be naturally selected...

My only wish would be for just a bit more space below the eyes of burrow baby.

[Arthur Morris]

I can't understand how you can get such good shots with your 100-400L. I did everything I could to get good shots with mine and could not even come close to stuff like this. Also used with a 20D like this shot but mine always seemed to come out soft or somewhat underexposed. Steve Large

Hi Steve, While it is possible that you had a bad copy of the lens--I have heard of but never experienced such--blaming poor exposures on the lens (or the camera) makes no sense at all... Bad exposures are always a result of operator error with digital...

respectfully submitted

[david cramer]

Nice catch, Steve. I love the juxtaposition and sharpness. I'd suggest bringing down the saturation just a tad.

[Anita Rakestraw]

Awww, this is just super! The 2nd owl took me by surprise too! Agree a more oof background would have been nice, but still wonderful! I would love to see these little fellas and assume we have them in Ks, but don't know how to go about finding them. Do you have any tips??

[Steve Canuel]

Thank you for the comments and suggestions everyone.

Hi Anita,
These guys frequent prairie dog towns throughout a lot of their range. Scan the burrow openings carefully because sometimes they look like p-dawgs sitting up. They'll probably be heading south within the next month or so although I did see a couple from the interstate on my weekend trip through Wyoming.