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Bringing home the bacon
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Bringing home the bacon

by Stephen Kaluski

Gallery: AvianPosted November 20, 2015197 views2 comments
This is the male bringing back a 'tasty morsel' for number 1 chick, number two still had not got his/her confidence to join his brother/sister then. A bit tight on the LHS, but managed NOT to clip the wings, as you have no idea which side they will fly into and land left or right of the chick, it's all within seconds and then they are off hunting again. This from under the old willow tree that had been hit by lightening and were nesting in and where light was of a premium.

Thanks to those who viewed or posted a comment on the previous thread.

Steve

Subject: Little owl (Athene noctua) coming back to feed young owlet
Location: UK
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 500f/4 MK2 with 1.4 MKIII Gitzo tripod/Uniqueball head
Exposure: 1/2000s at f/5.6 ISO6400 
Original format: Landscape, very slight crop from RHS.
Subject distance: 14m
Processed via: LR CC (2015) & PS CC 2014

Note: The subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalisations) in the capture of this image.

Comments

2 comments
Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on November 20, 2015 at 4:06 PM
I really like the interaction here Steve. I also like the open beak of the chick in anticipation of a meal. Not an easy image to pull off, so great job. I agree with your own assessments about the LHS and like you said, no way of knowing which side they fly into (or out of sometimes). I have this same issue sometimes when trying to get take-off and/or landing images of songbirds. I found it works better for me if I back off a tad more giving more room all around my subject. With the megapixel count of the cameras these days, it's easy to crop off the tad bit of excess.
Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on November 20, 2015 at 5:44 PM
Glad I waited to comment until I saw this on a good monitor, Steve.  This works surprisingly well with the extreme sharpness of the juvenile pulling the attention of the viewer and the added interest provided by the softer adult.

devil
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments