mialane

Barred Owl in Fall

This beautiful Barred Owl lives in our Owl Forest of Fish Lake and seems quite OK with me visiting him for awhile.

This beautiful Barred Owl lives in our Owl Forest of Fish Lake and seems quite OK with me visiting him for awhile.
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Ontario, CA

upload_date

Nov, 2021

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Zenith Award

Top Shot Award 22

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Outstanding Creativity

Absolute Masterpiece

Superb Composition

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Magnificent Capture

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Behind The Lens

Location

This Barred Owl lives on our property in what we call the Fish Lake Owl Forest (also where we gather Maple sap to make our Maple Syrup), but finding him is not so easy! I left the dogs at home on this walk, and slowly scanned every tree, high and low, and listened intently although owls are rather silent when flying. He spotted me first and flew away, but only a short distance. I was able to set up my equipment and start shooting fairly quickly. I had prepared ahead of time knowing I would have very little time to get anything worthwhile.

Time

I had seen him the other day and got a quick reference photo with my cell phone and so I went back the next evening around 4pm with better equipment. It's getting dark much sooner here in Ontario Canada so the light levels were rather low and sunny days are getting scarce but owls are more active later in the day and evenings.

Lighting

Looking up into a tree with backlighting required me to add to my aperture of f6.3 by two full stops so the owl was correctly exposed and not be concerned so much about overexposing the background. With the light quickly fading, I was forced to use as high an ISO as I could at 20000, knowing that it would be pretty noisy in post processing.

Equipment

It was just last year that I went to a full frame camera, a mirrorless Canon R, which I don't regret buying! I also got a Sigma 150-600 Contemporary lens for wildlife photography because I am a smaller woman and can't carry a heavier lens for long. This lens is quite acceptable for me and is what I used to take this shot at 484mm. The Canon R camera was also chosen, in part, for its lighter weight. I also use my sturdy, titanium Jobu monopod with a Jobu Gimbal Jr., again chosen for weight and durability. Although a tripod may have been a better choice with a stationary subject, the best equipment to use is the one you have on hand LOL A flash would have helped but I don't think flashing an owl is a good thing to do, besides scaring him away, their eyes are so sensitive, I'd worry about harming him. I also have a Cotton Carrier G3 harness to carry the camera and lens which I am very happy with and can easily carry around my equipment without fatigue and within easy access for those quicker shots.

Inspiration

I work from home and have access to our 41 acres of forest, swamp and marshlands. Discovering all that lives around us is pretty exciting for me and any owl sighting is worth remembering with a photograph if possible. I keep a running journal of my nature experiences on Facebook and take many friends on that journey with me who otherwise are stuck at home and never get to see such wonderous things. I try to share something about the experience as well as do some research on it too and pass that along. Did you know that the oldest Barred Owl on record lived to be 24 years of age? And their 11,000 year old fossils have been found in Ontario?

Editing

This photo did require a lot of post processing in Lightroom due to the low light levels, but as a visual artist, this is the part I really love to do. I had to open up some of the shadows and drop the background highlights, I warmed up the leaves (I'm not a fan of the colour yellow LOL) and to soften the graininess, I used Topaz Denoise which does a very good job I find. I added a small amount of vignette to balance out the values and draw attention to the owl.

In my camera bag

Besides the camera and 150-600 lens mentioned, I have a Sigma 105mm 2.8 DG Macro which I use a lot, especially where bokeh is important, like close-ups of flowers and mushrooms in the forest. It's been an amazing lens! I haven't had a 2.8 prime before and it's spoiled me for more primes! The Canon kit lens I seldom use. I try to keep my equipment bag light weight so I actually use the stuff and am quite happy with my selection so far although I am always looking at equipment, especially those 2.8 or higher lens.

Feedback

The biggest advice for shooting wildlife is to get ready ahead of time, aperture, speed, IOS , lens cap off, camera in hand...no fooling around time once an animal is in view. Not even a sitting owl will stay around for minutes while you fumble around with changing your settings. I've lost too many opportunities from not being ready. Of course that also goes with knowing your equipment well so any last minute changes can be made effortlessly and with purpose. This new camera has been quite a challenge to learn the many functions and settings and I'm still learning everyday but loving every minute of it!

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mialane

Barred Owl in Fall

This beautiful Barred Owl lives in our Owl Forest of Fish Lake and seems quite OK with me visiting him for awhile.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow mialane

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