An Experiment

Gallery: AvianPosted January 14, 2015162 views9 comments

This Barn Owl was found in complete darkness on our way back for dinner at Leballa in the Kwando concession, Northern Botswana. I fiddled around for ages with the settings luckily the Owl was not bothered, I use Tungsten White Balance as the illumination was via a spot light (luckily I did not end up with a blue Elephant

)
EOS 1DX
200-400mm F4 at 200 mm
F5.6
ISO 3299
1/40
EV -0.67
Hand-held

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on January 14, 2015 at 8:02 AM

Looks pretty natural Ken. Really doesn't even look like artificial light. Well done. What is it there just above his right claw? I had an idea, but I thought I'd just ask.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on January 14, 2015 at 10:53 AM

Good job on the lighting; looks quite natural.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on January 14, 2015 at 12:49 PM

Looks like it just had a meal. I'm curious about whatever is protruding also. Good detail and light, very natural looking.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Alberto Patiño on January 14, 2015 at 1:20 PM

I'd say the experiment turned out quite well - this is a gorgeous image!

Registered on December 2, 2014, 278 Posts, 1736 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on January 14, 2015 at 2:00 PM

Ken your use of the light you had worked really well, often wondered if this type of shot would work, you have proved that it certainly does, very well done with this.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Jefferson Silva on January 14, 2015 at 2:58 PM

Great image. 1/40, hand-held, excelent job, Ken!
Is the ISO correct?

Registered on December 18, 2012, 162 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on January 14, 2015 at 4:05 PM

Really well managed ! Same question about the 'thing' as Jerry asked

. Great work Ken ! Cheers, hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on January 15, 2015 at 1:02 AM

Thanks everybody for your comments

Firstly the ISO should be 3200.
As to the "thing", it is clearly not meant to be there and seems most likely to be a penetration by either a large thorn aor perhaps a porcupine quill, but really I have no real idea. I only hope it was able to pull it out
.

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on January 21, 2015 at 12:34 PM

Ken, I think the lighting worked out quite well. Sometimes the background gets lit up too much with the artificial lighting, but it's a nice subtle effect in this case.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments