There were at least four burrowing owls this day. I’ve had other people tell me that they’ve had owls sweep down and knock their hat off or dive bomb their dog. So far, the owls have always screeched and flown circles around me.
ISO 400, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec (Cropped)
After seeing an owl in our backyard, I was inspired to pay a visit to a nearby parliament of burrowing owls. As I rode up on my bike this lone coyote trotted up and didn’t seem to have much regard for me. It keep about 20 yards away at all times, but didn’t seem to mind me being there. It roamed around, presumably looking for the owls nests. These burrowing owls are great at distracting you with their calls as they try to lead you away from their burrows.
ISO 800, 380mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec (Cropped)
This coyote stayed around for a while and eventually took off to the other end of the hay fields. It was at sunrise and it was close enough that I wish I wouldn’t have had the 2x extender in, but I didn’t want to take the time to take it out in case it took off. I’ve got some great owl shots coming next, Seattle, and some family portraits of the Robinson family.
There is an owl that visits us every once in a while. This is the first time I’ve tried to photograph it though. Unfortunately, I was not ready for it. Fortunately, I learned a lot about the shot I want and will be better prepared next time.
The first hurdle was lighting, I ran into the problem of not wanting to use my flash. I figured I would scare it off if I did. So, I was left to handholding long exposures at first. Too blurry! Solution A, I got out my tripod. But I soon found that the owl didn’t want to hold still for long exposures even if my camera was still. Solution B, a flashlight didn’t scare it off, but lighting up the power lines along with the owl didn’t make for a great shot. Alternatives: Using a flashlight might produce a good looking shot if I’m prepared with my longer lens and can get close-up enough to cut the power lines out of the picture. I could also crop it, but the low light brings out the noise more on a crop.
The second hurdle was focusing in such low light. It was easier when the owl was lit up with a flashlight, but without it, I was guessing and trying to manual focus. Next time I’ll try my 50mm f/1.4 lens and see if it able to focus better.
The best picture I ended up is one that I want to improve on next time.
ISO 250, 145mm, f/2.8, 1.0 sec
I still like the shot, but the 1.0 second exposure left the owl’s edges a little blurry. I think it would have been a great shot if the moon was sharp as well as the owl. The only way that would ever happen though is to have a very small aperture and a very still owl for an even longer exposure. Or maybe I’ll take an additional photo with the moon in in focus and blend the two shots together to make one photo with both the owl and the moon in focus. That sounds like an easier plan to me versus relying on the owl to sit still for 20 or 30 seconds.
Nope, I didn’t see a single one. Elk, that is. I didn’t have a tag, but went along for the fun with three of my brothers and several friends. It was a blast! I could have done without the sore feet and lack of shower and bathroom, but It was a great opportunity to practice photography. Even though I didn’t see any elk, I did see several deer, a fox, birds, bugs, trees, stars, sunrises, and sunsets. I had time to practice painting with light, HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, panoramas, and astrophotography. I have a ton of pictures to post, but I’ll have to break it up into several posts. Here are some pictures of the main reasons I went. My brothers, friends, hunting, and wildlife.
I took this one on a tripod with my fancy dancy wireless remote hidden in my pocket. (Doug, me, Tommy, Ryan)
We spent a lot of our time glassing the hills (looking through binoculars) for any signs of elk. I like this panorama that I stitched together of Doug and Tom doing just that. You can click on this one to see it in a larger format with more detail.
Here are some of my other favorite pictures of us “glassing the hills.” (Eric, Miguel, and Tom)
Hunting pictures wouldn’t be complete without the weapons…
and some wildlife…
I’ve still got plenty more to go. Next post.
