Out and About Fledgling

Gallery: AvianPosted May 5, 201181 views3 comments

The two Great Horned Owlets I have shot over the past 3 weeks, have both fledged their nest. The older twin fledged last sunday and spends the days perched in a tree near it's parent. This closeup Portrait of the younger twin fledged on May 3 and has spent the past 2 days resting low on a limb only 20 ft away from refuge auto traffic. Based on average fledge times of 63-70 days from hatching, I estimate the age here at about 9 1/2 weeks.
I was able to get full body images and cropped this one for as a Portrait shot, I may never get this close to an owlet again. Still sporting much of it's original downy feathering that give an overall OOF look. The darker diagonal mark on the shoulder and the owls left ear are both tree limb shadows.

Larger version available, Thanks for stopping!

canon 7D
canon 600mm f4.L
F/14 1/60 ISO 100
tripod, wimberley head, cable, cooperative owl

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on May 6, 2011 at 7:16 AM

I like your portrait Craig. I might not have cropped in quite so far. As posted the some of the feathers on the front of the bird are cut off. Also, the crisp detail I really wanted to see in the larger version is lacking. Looking at your techs I am wondering if f/14 was a bit much and resulted in some diffraction issues that reduced the sharpness of the image a bit. I have seen diffraction issues shooting my 500mm at f/11, so f/14 may have been pushing it a bit. Just a thought.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on May 6, 2011 at 10:56 AM

I'd prefer seeing the full body shots to keep this from looking like a captive bird. I"d also increase the ISO to keep the SS higher and avoid stopping down so far.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on May 8, 2011 at 8:41 AM

Cool shot Craig.
May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments