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"Jack"
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"Jack"



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Jack the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) at Leeds Castle

Jack the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) at Leeds Castle
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cameraSONY SLT-A99V

settings Aperture f/9 ISO 6400 Shutter 625/100000 Focal Length 50/1 

upload_dateMar, 2016

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9 Comments |
bridgetrendall
 
bridgetrendall May 07, 2016
This is the winner for me :)
The-Art-of-Darkness
The-Art-of-Darkness May 07, 2016
Thanks ever so much - being able to shoot Jack is pure magic. Got to love the little fella
kezza7 Platinum
 
kezza7 May 07, 2016
Congrates on your win Jack is gorgus.
The-Art-of-Darkness
The-Art-of-Darkness May 07, 2016
Thank you very much - he's is that, and a joy to shoot too :)
joycealicesmith
 
joycealicesmith May 07, 2016
Fantastic capture!! Feathers look like a painting. So beautiful! Congratulations on winning People's choice! Rightly deserved!
The-Art-of-Darkness
The-Art-of-Darkness May 09, 2016
Thank you kindly for the compliments, I really appreciate them. The painting effect is exactly the look I was hoping for :)
judithstopforth
 
judithstopforth August 06, 2016
Stunning
The-Art-of-Darkness
The-Art-of-Darkness December 14, 2016
Thats very kind of you
ac_photo
 
ac_photo April 03, 2017
amazing!
The-Art-of-Darkness
The-Art-of-Darkness May 14, 2017
Thank you kindly
Neckbone
 
Neckbone May 24, 2017
Great shot!
Ibraheem_ALSinjlawi
 
Ibraheem_ALSinjlawi June 09, 2018
Good one!
keepclicking
 
keepclicking November 05, 2018
Awesome
tysonator
 
tysonator June 03, 2021
amazing !

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Behind The Lens

Location

This was taken at Leeds Castle in Kent, at the Falconry Centre

Time

It was just after midday but you'd never tell as the day was so overcast

Lighting

There was very poor natural light due to the heavy cloud & rain - Jack was perched near the front of his cage which in itself added an extra layer of shadow into the mix

Equipment

I used my Sony A99v plus 50mm f2.8 macro lens, hand held

Inspiration

Jack is a tiny burrowing owl and very photogenic. He's also not shy which endeared him to me greatly. There are many great birds of prey at Leeds Castle but Jack stole the show for me - my son even got to fly him later on in the day

Editing

Yeah, not a lot of choice in this case as I needed to edit out the mesh from the cage and wanted to achieve a soft painting effect to replicate the dream smoothing filter that I really like that used to be on GIMP. In this case I edited first in Paintshop Pro V6 and thenTopaz Impression. There's a fair bit of tweakery pokery been done in Paintshop Pro to remove the wire mesh dominating the bottom right quartile of the image plus some vignetting to add mood and reduce noise in the background whilst highlighting Jack. Finally I mixed in some Topaz painting effects to create the look I wanted and which also helped mask noise in the main subject caused by the low light levels in the original image

In my camera bag

I had my standard kit - my A99v plus spare batteries, cleaning kit and three lenses. The lenses were my Sigma 150-500mm and 50mm macro that go everywhere with me and for this shoot my third lens was a Zeiss f1.4 85mm portrait lens. I also had my trusty Mk1 RX100 as a backup

Feedback

I always try to carry a macro lens with me, wherever I go. They're usually small and easy enough to carry and they add a whole new dimension to your shooting whether it be a dandelion in the street or an eager little burrowing owl through the mesh of his enclosure. If you want to make images that stand the test of time don't limit yourself to "the far without the near" (to quote Ronnie James Dio)

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