Barn Owl at 9am

[edavies]

My daughter spotted this Barn Owl in a tree outside my house at about 9am this morning. It is obviously sleeping during the day. It is very rare to see one of these during the day in this region of South Africa, It is still there as I write this at 3pm local time. It is my first attempt at using my new 70 to 300mm lens. Seems to have performed well but because it was in both shadow and sunlight, I used the flash as well to try and get rid of shadows. The problem I found myself in was what to use as a WB setting. This shot was taken using RAW mode and I played around until I thought it was OK.

IMG_0148a.jpg

[Hayward Taylor]

Hello there ... wow - maybe it was out too late last night .. you did a great job in post, though .. very nice

[edavies]

Many thanks Hayward - your comments are much appreciated!! I guess this fellow was hunting all night.

Regards

Evan

[h_ta3kees]

Nice Catch, and congrats for your 70-300 kit, it is real good one. you may need to use the stand for the cam.

have a nice day.

[edavies]

Originally Posted by h_ta3kees

Nice Catch, and congrats for your 70-300 kit, it is real good one. you may need to use the stand for the cam.

have a nice day.

Thanks for your comments. I was using a tripod in this shot - the camera moved about too much to shoot this without the tripod.

[Fred flyfisher]

It's a beautiful bird isn't it? I always shoot in RAW. It gives you so much more possibilities in post. Thanks for sharing this.

[gturner]

Hi edavies

Nice capture. Owls are my favourite bird of prey and you are in a good area for them!

One thing on that lens is that it can be pretty unstable at 300mm so try to get a stable base as often as possible and your images will really sharpen up.

[fstopMike]

Great capture and a rare find. You did well!

[edavies]

Hello everyone

Many thanks for the comments on my photo. I need some advice on how to steady the camera when shooting at 300mm. I did use a tripod but obviously this was not enough. Should I perhaps lock the mirror for this sort of shot? I can see that the owl was not really 100% in focus now that I look carefully. Sorry to ask this in this forum but I am really keen to improve. Thanks to anyone who can help here.

[leonaashlee]

Evan, this is a great shot! Your daughter has a good eye....Congrats on your new lens...and have loads of fun with it. Can't wait to see more.