Eagle Owl Close ups with a 300mm lens

KentYeti · #1 (**permalink**) 02-10-2011, 08:21 PM

My web site development continues slowly.

As well as putting my wild bird photos on it, I am developing a series of pages showing close ups of Owls. Cos I have fallen in love with those wonderful birds!

Of necessity such photos will almost certainly be captive owls that are flown etc at Conservation Centres. I doubt I will ever get within a few feet of wild owls.

Just done the first few such close ups of Eagle Owls.

Kent Yeti's Close Up Photos of Eagle Owls

Awesome birds and fantastic to get close up to.

Interestingly I've been using my Nikon 300mm f4 prime lens for these shots. I tried the Nikon 70-300mm VR lens to use a lower zoom, but the quality is rarely up to it. It's now been relegated to steam loco photography and may well end up being traded in.

Using the 300mm can be fun. For real close up I have to make sure I am not so close I cannot get a focus at all. And the depth of field when I am just about ok to get a close up focus is simply crazy! But the background does rather go away when I do that: see the close up Index page shot both for background and non existent depth of field.

I did think about a Nikon 135mm f2 lens. But the price! And it's closest focus is about the same as the 300mm if I read up on it correctly.

So I reckon my 300mm lens will become my Owl portrait lens. LOL!

The close up of the talons of the owl coming into land was a mix of pre-focussing and luck. I've cropped it down a bit for effect, but not vast amounts.

Bryan

operanut1972 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-10-2011, 07:53 AM

Love the shots, whilst obviously we all want to experience all our nature in the 'wild', however, this is just not realistic today. Keep up the good work

KentYeti · #3 (**permalink**) 03-10-2011, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by operanut1972

Love the shots, whilst obviously we all want to experience all our nature in the 'wild', however, this is just not realistic today. Keep up the good work

Many thanks.

I did think long and hard before deciding to do a series of Close Up Owl pages. Knowing they would have to be all captive birds and not out in the wild where I love to spend so much time.

But I feel there is room for a few web sites giving very great detail of these wonderful birds. Close up faces, eyes, wing detail, claws etc. And I can see no way to do that in the wild.

Cheers,

Bryan

PMG · #4 (**permalink**) 03-10-2011, 09:22 AM

Its a lovely idea and I can see the magnetic draw - owls eyes are magnificent, as is feather detail, claws etc. Just cos these birds are captive doesn't neccessarily make getting the shots any easier in my experience - they are just as quick and quirky as wild birds and you still have to have your wits about you to get the pics!

Pauline

htcdude · #5 (**permalink**) 03-10-2011, 09:26 AM

Stunning shots Yeti! All wild of course eh?

Look forward to seeing more

Nige

RoyW · #6 (**permalink**) 03-10-2011, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htcdude

Stunning shots Yeti! All wild of course eh?

Look forward to seeing more

Nige

Yes, some stunning shots Bryan - I particularly like the shot of the face.

Out of interest, was the owl being flown without jesses, or have you 'removed' these in processing?

As for being "wild", you know my views on that - any Eagle Owl being flown in the UK is just a short flight away from being as wild as they get!

KentYeti · #7 (**permalink**) 03-10-2011, 12:14 PM

Well, it seems there will be some interest in the pages as I do them.

Yes, the fact that they are being flown captive hardly makes it easier to get photos. Having large birds flying fast so close made it quite hard to get the shots. Especially as I ended up using just the 300mm lens. The actual flights were over very, very fast. Focus was a particular problem.

The Eagle Owl, Kaln, at the Barn Owl Centre doesn't wear jesses or even have an electronic chip on him. So they walk him in and out of his aviary before and after his flights. And that means patience as he does rather like to go and perch high up on a large tree near the very natural field used for the photo shoots at the Centre.

The Buzzard they use there does have jessses, but they remove those before it flys. And he behaved very naturally during flying: we had to wait at one point as he caught and ate a vole in the field being used.

My plan is to minimise any Photoshop work on the birds, I don't like doing that. I'd mostly like to get shots from angles where such as jesses don't show much, if at all. But there will be a few shots where some work will have to be done.

And also I plan to mostly use shots where the birds look as though they could be in the wild. Although the text will always identify captive birds as such. So no cheating!

But, these shots will form only part of my web pages. I will continue to spend hour after hour, day after day, in pursuit of owls etc in the wild. Like we all do.

Cheers,

Bryan

PS. Roy, Kaln, the Eagle owl, came up to me when he was still in his aviary and before flying and chatted away to me, (he really did). He must have seen my camera and realised he was going to be flying soon. I don't speak "owl" well yet, but I am sure he also said, "And I am British, honest guv..." LOL!

galanthophile · #8 (**permalink**) 09-10-2011, 05:40 AM

What a fantastic web page! These really are magnificent birds and are just fascinating at every angle! I saw some at Thorpe Perrow last week and even though you are quite close to them they are still hard to photograph. Superb. Thanks for sharing.

Littlesparrow · #9 (**permalink**) 09-10-2011, 06:54 AM

Lovely owl photos Bryan, the detail shows up really well using the 300mm lens. I had a look at your avocet photos on your site,also very good.

johnf3f · #10 (**permalink**) 15-10-2011, 11:04 PM

[quote=KentYeti;832205]

Of necessity such photos will almost certainly be captive owls that are flown etc at Conservation Centres. I doubt I will ever get within a few feet of wild owls.

Whats wrong with that? Captive birds are generally well looked after and fed regularly! If they don't like it they will simply fly off - which they do quite often, but nearly always come back! On an Eagle handling day I had in the Cotswolds, the proprietor expressed no concern when his Bald Eagle simply left - he knew he would be back when he was hungry!
Of course with captive birds one expects better shots - and you seem to be getting them! Well done.

I am a Canon user so I use the Canon 300mm F4 IS (on a 1.3 crop camera) - it's such a versatile focal length that I will never sell it! Well not until I can afford an F2.8!