Owl under a blanket
A burrowing owl posing on a perch.
A burrowing owl posing on a perch.
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Jun, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken along Laguna Ave., of Morgan Hill, CA. The open fields on both sides of the road have not been utilized for farming for quote sometime making them ideal habitats for rodents such as gophers and voles which in turn attract birds of prey as their favorite hunting ground.Time
It was on Thursday at 3:24PM, on Christmas eve of 2015, the owl was perching in the open trying to enjoy a sunbathe although there was not much of any sunlight available on that particular day.Lighting
Perhaps it was due to the overcast, the owl perched longer trying to get exposed to as much sunlight as possible. The lack of the afternoon harsh light due to the weather provided a good photographic opportunity with such a combo of the owl as the super model and the softlighting to eliminate heavy imbalance between shadows and highlights.Equipment
This was shot handheld on a Canon EOS 1DX body with a 1.4 teleconverter attached to Canon EF600mm IS USM II using available natural light.Inspiration
I was just planning to shoot the owl after its sighting was reported on the ebird bulletin. However, I was lucky not only to see the owl but it was there posing for me like a model.Editing
Post processing is as critical as taking a good shot itself in photography. I have established my own bird photography post processing work flow as my routine. I start out with some basic shadow and highlight adjustments in Adobe Lightroom and finish up in Adobe Photoshop for further enhancements such as applying selective noise reductions and sharpening. I usually spend five to ten minutes for each image in post processing.In my camera bag
My favorite combo for bird photography is Canon EOS 1DX Mark II, EF600mm IS USM II lens, 1.4X TC III. I always bring along my Canon EOS 7D Mark II and 2.0X TC III to be ready whenever I need more reach for subjects at longer distance especially of those smaller birds. Even though I shoot handheld most of the time I always have my monopod ready in case I need it in a situation where I have to wait for a bird to take off or in poor lighting conditions.Feedback
Just by going out there more often increases your chance of not only finding the bird that you're looking for but also getting unique poses or actions. For more info about bird photography, please feel free to visit my web page at http://phoochan.com.
