Great Horned Owl

[Kerry Perkins]

This was a bonus opportunity I found yesterday on the way to a favorite spot - More Mesa on the Santa Barbara coast. Was walking along a very shady trail when I found this lovely owl resting. I had the 1.4x on the 400mm and couldn't even get the whole bird in. I took it off, set my ISO to 800, and still only got 1/120th on the meter. I flipped up the built-in flash to help with the light, dialed it down to -1 2/3 and managed to get this one. The head tilt down prevented the red-eye in this case. Image is full frame.

50D, EF400mm f/5.6L
Manual mode, f/5.6@1/120 ISO 800 WB 5100K
AI Servo autofocus, hand-held, built-in flash at FEV -1 2/3

[Steve Canuel]

Always nice to stumble upon one of these. I like the way the owl forms an extension of the perch and the down-tilted stare it's giving you. Might lighten the darker branch in the BG by its ear just a touch.

[Stephen Stephen]

Kerry you definitely caught its attention. I love the eye contact and the talons showing.

[Troy Lim]

It was not too happy ;)
The crop is a bit tight, especially on the bottom right. Dark makes it a moody shot. Well done.

[Fabs Forns]

Love the eye contact and perch I may darken the highlights on upper left.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice portrait of this beauty. Great find and pose.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Kerry, this really looks like one of those wooden owls on houses :-) Killer expression. Loved the feather details a lot.

Do you use the 400 with 1.4x a lot on 50D? I find that even after taping the pins, the AF is not very good. cheapo tamron is better but IQ not as good as canon. Sharpness is decent at f/9 but getting good 1/800+ SS at f/9 is not always possible. So hand-held without IS is quite tough. You probably must be using tripod a lot more than I do.

[Kerry Perkins]

Kaustubh, I don't use the extender that often and when I do I use manual focus. It's pretty difficult to get good results hand-held with it and I don't use the tripod very often. Very difficult to use for flight that way! On this particular day I was hoping to get better images of white-tailed kites, but the 1.4x on the 400 5.6 is just too hard to use without a good tripod and head, neither of which I have! ;)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx. same case here :-) I rarely see the 40d/50D/7D and 400 f/5.6+1.4x used. Hence I asked.

[niranjan sant]

this great horned owl looks so different from the one we have here in india. is this the bubo speci???

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Niranjan, yes it is Bubo species. But different from the one in India( Bubo Bubo bengalensis), which I believe they call now Eagle Owl, right?

[Kerry Perkins]

This one is Bubo virginianus, I believe.

[Pete Padilla]

Great capture Kerry. I'm going to have to vist More Mesa and see if I can get some of the wild life there. See you soon again.
Pete

[Kiran Poonacha]

Really loved the eye contact here...

[denise ippolito]

Kerry, Fantastic capture and great eye contact. Agree w/ the toning down the tiny bit of highlights. Nice job getting the shot!:)

[Harold Davis]

Bubo virginianus is correct!! what a treat to walk up on this guy!! nicely done, KP. love that stare down.