Flight of the Phantom 2
Feb, 2015Views
691
Likes
Awards
Winner in Owls in Flight Photo Challenge
Winner in Owls and Only Owls Photo Challenge
Winner in Things in flight, from insects to jumbo jets Photo Challenge
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Peer Award
Superior Skill
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
Love it
Categories
PRO+
NeilTorr
October 06, 2015
Congratulations, I have just selected this image as the grand winner of my things in flight challenge. There were several things that caught my eye with this, particularly the composition with the wings reaching from corner to corner, the intensity of the gaze which seems to be on you, and the snowfall adds so much to it, There were lots of amazing entries, but for me this was the winner
PRO
Hazestead
August 04, 2018
As soon as I saw this beautiful photo of yours I knew it would be a very worthy winner. .congratulations 😊
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken in a rural setting. I had imagined what would represent an iconic type image for this bird and was fortunate enough to capture a great grey owl in flight through a heavy snow fall.Time
This was taken in later afternoon during a heavy snow storm with big fluffy flakes of snow...Lighting
As you can tell it was snowing so this meant high ISO and fairly slow shutter speed; luckily this is a relatively slow flying bird...Equipment
I used a Nikon D3s body and Nikon 400 mm 2.8 lens on a Gitzo tripod with Wimberley Gimbal head; no flashInspiration
I wanted to capture the spirit of the great grey owl in what I thought was it's most iconic type of behaviour; flying through the snow...Editing
The image was shot in RAW which allowed me to do the usual processing which included pushing by about two stops, and then using NIK software to bring out the snow...In my camera bag
It depends on the shoot of the day; typically, I carry my best fully frame body (currently a D4) with a back up body (D3s) and some times a crop body (D7100) along with an assortment of lenses ranging from 14 mm to 600mm. On this occasion, I had my 400mm 2.8 lens on the D3s with a tripod.Feedback
It is very challenging to get a flight image with the bird flying towards you; I have my shutter set to a rear shutter setting which allows to pump and shoot and hope you get a sharp image as these opportunities do not come along very often. It helps to practice this type of shot before going out to be comfortable with the process.
