Spent an hour watching this beauty hunt her favourite patch, she often uses the fence posts for a rest after quartering the fields or the road side verges but doesn't tolerate you pulling up in the car when she lands. So I sat and watched her for a while to see if she favoured any specific posts, unfortunately it looked as though on this morning she favoured the ones which would put her with her back to the sun.
Still, beggers can't be choosers so I positioned the car and waited, only for her to land on the only metal post out of about fifty old wooden fence post, just my luck....:(
Thanks for looking and wishing everyone a fantastic 09..... :)
Techs: 1/320 @ F5.6 EC 0 ISO250 1DMK11 N 600F4 using car as a hide..... No chance of using fill flash, tried that before and she flew of to her barn...
Terrific pose and what a sweet light. I like the mood of the image and the BG a lot but I think that there is too much empty space at the top of the composition. the perch is not the best to compliment such a beautifull image but it is a kind of perch widely used by barn owls and it is Ok to me. Happy 2009
This is a lovely image, Tony. Nice to have the chance to see this now that the Avian galleries have merged. Agree with Juan re space above. My main issue is the cold light coming from behind you so I have tried a warmer version using colour balance and curves (also brought the black point up a little) - this may look to warm to you in winter but looks OK to me as we are in mid summer!!
Hi Tony, not sure about the warmer version, although I'm looking at it on a un-calibrated lap top at the mo, crop is better. I only left the top half of the image in for the pinkish morning light, hate the post though.
Bill, the bird is ringed and not captive. Most Barn Owl's in my country have a ring with Birth date, area of birth and a phone number should the bird be found dead or injured. They then can tell how long it lived for and how far it has travelled during it's life time.
The BTO ring the birds when they are chicks to monitor the survival rate as unfortunately this iconic bird of our farmlands is in decline...
First Light
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