Watching

Gallery: AvianPosted April 23, 2012116 views7 comments

Hi again, Everyone! Here's another from that awesome evening we had last summer with a few Great Grey Owls. (This guy is a different owl than my last post.) I did post a tighter crop of a similar picture of this owl last fall, but decided to see what else caught my fancy from my pictures of that outing and came up with this one. Amongst other differences, this angle shows at least a hint of his beak which was intriguingly absent from my earlier image.

I was really torn on whether to make this a vertical panorama including the owls talons on the fence post (which was quite a cool version) or go tighter again, but this comp kept feeling just about right, even though it's a little bit of an unusual place to stop on the bottom end I thought.

Anyway, VERY curious to hear your thoughts on this one.

And just to make sure there are no misunderstandings, this is a wild owl we came across and observed for almost an hour while he hunted the fields near our truck. He was remarkably indifferent about our presence, but we spoke quietly, moved slowly, and made sure we weren't stressing him out in any way. In fact, it was hard to get any images of him looking AT us except immediately after our arrival. We left him on the same fence post he had been on for 20+ minutes, still ever-watchful for movement in the grass.

Nikon D7000
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4 IF-ED with TC-14EII teleconverter
ISO 400
1/50sec @ f/6.3
tripopd mounted, shutter tripped with electronic cable release

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on April 23, 2012 at 8:34 PM

That face is great even from a side view with awesome detail.. I only wish for more dof on the body

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on April 23, 2012 at 9:21 PM

Another great Great Gray shot. Love the stare.
May

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

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on April 23, 2012 at 11:22 PM

A fine portrait John, it really demonstrates the incredible intensity and concentration they have. Very good techs, nice colors, sharp and a fine background. My recent encounter with this species is in keeping with your observations that they can be quite tolerant of onlookers with cameras.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by David Haynes on April 24, 2012 at 12:57 AM

John,
Super image and a terrific pose. I guess I'm just wondering why you didn't stop down a bunch more to get better depth of field on this image. You did get the face extremely sharp and that's really what you want in a shot like this but I'm wondering what this would have looked like with just a little more DOF.
As far as the composition I'm not sure it works for me. I might crop some off the bottom to give it a little better balance. The talons on owls are the most impressive part of the bird with the exception of the head/face so I guess I'm wondering why you chose to crop them off? I do like the intense look that you get with this tighter shot but would like to see it with the talons as well. Sounds almost like you have an eruption of GGO's up there. Lucky you. Get some more good ones. I'm loving these posts.

Registered on February 20, 2010, 110 Posts, 1511 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on April 24, 2012 at 7:14 AM

John a very powerful image for me. I like the overall comp a lot. The face is sharp so it works for me. Not sure why the body is not sharp. To me f/6.3 with the body position should be enough to get the body pretty sharp too given the focal length you used. Unless the bird was really really close. It may have been movement at 1/50s I can def see that. Overall, I see why you could not close up your aperture any further being at only 1/50s as it was. So, given the light you had you did well on your techs IMO.

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

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on April 24, 2012 at 2:04 PM

Love it! He sure looks intense! I also really like his colours. The bokeh looks awesome!

Also, I don't really mind the DOF problem the others are pointing out. I think it actually HELPS the image by keeping your eye on the sharpness in his face and his eyes. Especially with that intense look he has.

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on April 26, 2012 at 2:22 AM

Thanks, Everyone! Sorry for the delay in responding, but...

Ron, David and Cheryl: Yes, I would have liked more DOF as well (though as Jenaya suggested, I personally kind of like how the sharpness of the details on his face attracts and keeps your attention there). As Ron noted, I was already down to 1/50sec, and felt I was pushing my luck as it was. To be honest, I'm not 100% confident in my ability to explain the lack of corresponding DOF in the body but think Ron is onto the answer...as dusk fell, the breeze did pick up and if you know these owls, you know their breast feathers are possibly the softest things on the face of the earth

and move and pulse in the breeze. I wouldn't have thought there was enough breeze to affect nearly all the feathers here, but I did note with interest that in my sequence of images there is variance in the sharpness and positioning of the body feathers. Still, f/11 might have been worth a try (or, if the above theory is correct, would have blurred them altogether), but the creamy background at this aperture was very pleasing to me when I checked my results and histograms in the field, so honestly I didn't experiment too much.

David: ultimately my decision re: talons was simply because my encounters with these owls have been almost exclusively relegated to barbed-wire fence posts, which is where this guy was perched as well. My choice of comps (crops) here was influenced by the desire to do something "different" and to NOT SEE ANOTHER FENCE POST!

Also, just a note once again that these recent Great Grey images from me were from July of last year of summer residents of the Alberta foothills. We did NOT have any kind of an irruption of these guys this winter that I'm aware of, though a few showed up recently on their way back to whatever forests they call home. I'm hoping to find a few new individuals this summer to admire and photograph...they've long been my favourite owl and I can pass the entire day in peace and pleasure watching them.

Thanks again...

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments