Sister Juvenile Great Horned Owls
Sister juvenile great horned owls.
Sister juvenile great horned owls.
Read less
Read less
Oct, 2015Views
578
Likes
Awards
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Peer Award
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Top Ranks
Top 30 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Categories
billfriggle
January 19, 2016
Thank you Kim and Adrian. I love this shot. Nice to know I am not alone. :-)
billfriggle
April 08, 2018
Thanks everyone for your kind words and all the likes. They are greatly appreciated.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken in Thomas P. Grater Community Park, in Ephrata, PA.Time
This photo was taken around 4 pm. With the suns location and trees that would throw all kinds of shadows in the morning, late afternoon and evening would give you the best lighting.Lighting
I would get there early and fight the light from shadows shadows from trees and the angles of the tree. One bird might be in light, the other in a dark shadow, and tree limbs casting other shadows as well. Or on really bright morning the one would get blown out or the other would be black. So as the day went on if the owls where active enough you would delete lousy lit pictures for better ones later. Eventually I would just show up later. But then you might miss mom bringing a rabbit or something for lunch.Equipment
At the time this was taken I had, and still do, :-( , a older Nikon D300. It is a god camera but with shooting birds it can struggle with autofocus and the limit of ISO as I can't go above 1600 without to much noise and the picture not looking good. But for this shot it was fine. At the time I used my largest lens which was a Nikon 70-300 VR lens. Which did good if you stayed above F8. I have since gotten a Nikon 200-500. What a great lens.Inspiration
Birds have always been a fascination to me. Ever since I was a kid. As I got older it just grew. I have done photography since I was a kid. But never had the equipment I thought was needed to do birds. Well one day I saw a red tail hawk near the road and got shots with my lens. That changes things for me. I have since been shooting birds. But at first it was not as serious as I am in a wheelchair, and decided to rather sit at home and feel sorry for myself. Then a friend told me about some baby great horned owls in a local park. The first question is could I get to them. She said yup they are right across a creek and you are about eye level with them. And it is all open on your side. SWEET! So taking this and many others of these baby owls changed my life. Now I go out as much as I can where ever I can get to in my chair or my car. Every picture I have taken is from one or the other. I am amazed how God has blessed me with the opportunities to shoot birds I would have never dreamed of. I just had to get out and try and find them. And these owls gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get out.Editing
I did a little bit of a crop. Took out a little bit of highlights from there fuzz, and added some shadow detail. Some typical contrast, a little sharpening, some noise reduction and you see what I got.In my camera bag
Nikon D300. Nikon 200-500. Nikon 70-300 VR. Nikon 35 1.8 DX. Nikon 18-70 3.5-4.5. Yongnuo YN-568EX Speedlite.Feedback
Get out and shoot. And when other come around, talk to them. You can make great friends from those you meet. And then they share sightings they hear about. And you can share ones you have heard to them. The more you meet, the more you hear. And the best part, the more friends you can make. But you first need to get out. Or join a local photography group. Or a bird watching group. If you don't know where to go, we have a amazing thing now a days called Google. You can find them. Or go to a local photography shop and talk to them. Most of them are photographers as well. If they don't want o help you, they are jerks and you shouldn't go back there. Go to another one.
