Mating Burrowing Owl II

[Bob Pelkey]

Burrowing Owl at Cape Coral Library
Cape Coral, Florida USA

These are the original pair of Burrowing Owl I first observed 28 FEB 2010. They are seen
here mating again as I had observed during my first sighting of them. The event has lasted
only about five seconds and has occurred between 12 and 15 minutes after sunset.
Attempting to stay out of the box at BPN. Perhaps the IPT crew can improve on this in 2011.
I'm surprised no one has recommended flash as the necessary solution.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III ,Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM
1/15s f/5.6 at 840.0mm iso2500

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	06-Mar-2010 18:42:46
Make	Canon
Model	Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	840 mm
Exposure Time	1/15 sec
Aperture	f/5.6
ISO Equivalent	2500
Exposure Bias	+2/3
White Balance
Metering Mode	matrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program	shutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

[John Chardine]

Bob- This is a different interpretation of a bird image, and I personally like it. This one is much more recognisable than the last you posted- still out of the box I think, but closer to what might be called "tradition". You really didn't have a lot of light to work with as your exposure settings attest. Perhaps a solution might have been to sacrifice your histogram and underexpose a little to better reflect the light levels at the time. As it is the image looks like it was made on a nice, bright day! I agree that some fill flash, if appropriate in this particular situation, might have been useful.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the out-of-the-box approach as the light was apparently very low. This one works better than the previous one as the interaction is discernible.