Was sat at work today looking at infinite telnet windows, I couldn't ignore the beams of georgeous winter sunlight making there way into the room, all the time wondering whether my new friend out on the fens was busy soaring and looking for Voles, so I squared a few things away, and begged to go early to catch the evening light before it decended into the bleakness predicted for the weekend.
I turned up around 3:30pm, camera mounted on window, centre point focus, presets set for +1/3rd of a stop for flight, and -1/3rd of a stop for anything with a dark background... Nothing appeared.. Drove up and down for an hour, still nothing apart from a Heron, was about to call it quits when I caught a glimpse through the binos, of a dark owl like shape in a tuft of grass 80yds away, sat with his feathers all puffed up.. so I waited and waited, eventually he took to the skies, with his normal routine of quartering the riverbank diving, hovering and soaring, I also managed to get pretty close this time when he landed on the mole hills, I had about 5 minutes with him messing around in the grass, its quite exciting to look into the viewfinder and see this chap almost full frame...
I also saw his/her mate about 100yds up the river, was spoilt for choice at one point.
Unfortunatley to put a downer on the evening, I went behind a bush before setting off home and discovered a dead short eared owl halfway up the dyke, looked like it may have been shot.. nothing I can do, other than if I catch anyone shooting these guys, they'll be shot to Cf card, and reported to the police, it won't be the farmer as they love owls (keep the voles and mice off the crops) most probably some awful chav.
Without further a do, tonights shots, all 300mm + 2x, ISO400/800,
Processing:
Curves,
Colour balance.
Selective highlights/shadows
Slight saturation to add some punch
Applied warming filter to some shots
USM set to 124/0.2/0 and applied twice.
I turned up around 3:30pm, camera mounted on window, centre point focus, presets set for +1/3rd of a stop for flight, and -1/3rd of a stop for anything with a dark background... Nothing appeared.. Drove up and down for an hour, still nothing apart from a Heron, was about to call it quits when I caught a glimpse through the binos, of a dark owl like shape in a tuft of grass 80yds away, sat with his feathers all puffed up.. so I waited and waited, eventually he took to the skies, with his normal routine of quartering the riverbank diving, hovering and soaring, I also managed to get pretty close this time when he landed on the mole hills, I had about 5 minutes with him messing around in the grass, its quite exciting to look into the viewfinder and see this chap almost full frame...
I also saw his/her mate about 100yds up the river, was spoilt for choice at one point.
Unfortunatley to put a downer on the evening, I went behind a bush before setting off home and discovered a dead short eared owl halfway up the dyke, looked like it may have been shot.. nothing I can do, other than if I catch anyone shooting these guys, they'll be shot to Cf card, and reported to the police, it won't be the farmer as they love owls (keep the voles and mice off the crops) most probably some awful chav.
Without further a do, tonights shots, all 300mm + 2x, ISO400/800,
Processing:
Curves,
Colour balance.
Selective highlights/shadows
Slight saturation to add some punch
Applied warming filter to some shots
USM set to 124/0.2/0 and applied twice.
Number 4 for me, but they're all gorgeous. Top work!
The last one is great too.
