Barred Owl Flight

[Jim Neiger]

Indian River County, FL - 1D3, 500mm, hand held from boat, 1/1600, F5.0, ISO 400, manual exposure

[Ramon M. Casares]

Amazing pose, BG, good light, great comp, nice detail, colors and sharnpess, I would only suggest to remove the little catchlight below the bigger one. Congratulations!

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Excellent capture, wing position, sharpness and exposure. Agree with Ramon about the catchlight.

I would also blur/tone down the brighter areas in the RLC. I find there is just enough detail/contrast there that it detracts from the owl.

Thanks for sharing!

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

A quick example of want I meant. I find it less distracting. It is such a great owl, tried to help keep our attention on it!

Randy

[Jeff Nadler]

hey Jim!

Of course it's spectacular. Lovely background.

[Chris Kotze]

Super detail and colours. Great shot

[Stu Bowie]

Super flying posture, good light, detail and colours. The owl pops from the BG so well. Very well captured Jim.

[Dave Leroy]

I am guessing Jim you went with 1/1600 to get a sharper photo rather than a smaller aperature for more DOF?

Tks Dave

[Jim Neiger]

I am guessing Jim you went with 1/1600 to get a sharper photo rather than a smaller aperature for more DOF?

Tks Dave

I was pushing the edge with the DOF because I wanted the relatively close bg to be OOF as possible. Normally I would have been at F7.1 and ISO 800 with the 1D3 for a shot like this. I wanted 1/1600 or better to ensure consistantly sharp shots. Barred Owls in flight can be very tough. If the image isn't tack sharp, the fine feathers in the face usually don't look right. I have made hundreds of Barred Owl flight shots that are sharp, but the not quite sharp ones outnumber the sharp ones.