Owl In Flight

[Troy Lim]

Owl in flight is one of the hardest things to do in bird photography in the 8 months I experienced so far. They fly so quietly and have to keep your eyes on them or you would lose sight of them.

Manual Metering
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

Comments and Critiques are greatly appreciated!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the flight pose, the forward extending wing pointing to the same direction as the owl eyes. Wish there is more room on the right.

[Troy Lim]

Love the flight pose, the forward extending wing pointing to the same direction as the owl eyes. Wish there is more room on the right.

Thanks, Thanaboon. I cropped the photo, there is still some room, just need to re-crop.
I grew up in Malaysia.

[Tom Graham]

Interesting perspective. Looking at wings almost looks like it was taken with a wide angle lens!! I could say I'd like more DOF so to see the wing tips sharp. But you know, their tips being out of focus seems to add to the intimacy of the image. That plus the wide angle look it seems the wing is a meter from my eyes!!! You sure it was 200mm lens, not 20mm?
Good BG but I would clone out the solid light green splotch at the bottom. And of course a highlight in the eye.
Tom

[Troy Lim]

Interesting perspective. Looking at wings almost looks like it was taken with a wide angle lens!! I could say I'd like more DOF so to see the wing tips sharp. But you know, their tips being out of focus seems to add to the intimacy of the image. That plus the wide angle look it seems the wing is a meter from my eyes!!! You sure it was 200mm lens, not 20mm?
Good BG but I would clone out the solid light green splotch at the bottom. And of course a highlight in the eye.
Tom

Tom, more DOF would have been better. I just could not decide. I started off shooting f8 when I first located this nest, then BG is too much and compete with the bird, even with blurring it in CS4. Then I shot wider at 5.6, better BG but need to track the bird to get a good shot. The space that I have there plus the way they fly, only had seconds.
Thank you for suggesting clone out the bottom. I will do that for sure. Thank you. Yes it is at 200mm.

[Alfred Forns]

One sweet image Troy These guys are very difficult to nail sharp expose, you got both ! Would tighten the image a bit more just to have the bird larger in frame

I like the tech settings and find the dof just fine. Stopping down will give a tiny more but will introduce more motion blur at the wing tips which moving fast !!!

[Troy Lim]

One sweet image Troy These guys are very difficult to nail sharp expose, you got both ! Would tighten the image a bit more just to have the bird larger in frame

I like the tech settings and find the dof just fine. Stopping down will give a tiny more but will introduce more motion blur at the wing tips which moving fast !!!

Al,
Are you talking about cropping the top and bottom to make it tighter? I normally crop 16x20. I know sometimes need to do free crop to make the image better.
Next time I can stop down 1/3 and I can compensate with higher ISO to get faster speed to freeze the the wings. Some like blurred wings, some don't. I am not sure which I like best.
Normally I get the wings covering the head, this one is rare as the head is above the wings. Maybe I need to shoot from a ladder next time just to get a different angle.

Thank you.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Troy....... Congratulations! This is a wonderful image.I like it alot! I think the DOF is fine!