Uncertain

Gallery: Man & FaunaPosted July 4, 2011333 views3 comments

Which describes both the Fledgling Barn Owl and my ambivalence over posting this image here. While I think it's a powerful image it is also misleading (I was certainly mislead while photographing it). Six weeks ago our neighbor called because she had a couple of fledgling Barn Owls that hadn't made it back to the box and were out in mid morning. They didn't look healthy (upshot was we caught them and took them to a rehabber and they're fine now, though a third one that she found later didn't make it-apparently something happened to at least one of the adults). What makes me uncertain is that I thought this owl was trapped in the fence-turns out it was just perched on the rail and a few minutes later it hopped on through.

Anyhow, I thought I'd post it and get some feedback on how you folks feel about using something like this.

1DMkIV, 300mm f4 IS, hand held, f8, 1/125, iso 500, 10:26 am on a drizzly May 15th. This is a large crop (2.9MP left of the original 16).

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking,

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on July 5, 2011 at 10:21 AM

Dennis, It certainly is an interesting example of a photograph that could be used to illustrate several different things: an owl in a wire cage, and owl caught in the wire, or an owl in distress. Thanks for sharing this, it does make one think about how a nature photo can be used in ways not intended.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Hank Pennington on July 12, 2011 at 1:08 AM

I agree with John that this has many possible uses. It's notable for it's closeup detail set against the wires, so "interpretation" of what the viewer sees could vary a lot. I'd always include a description of the true circumstances with any submission, but you just never know how an editor would choose to use it. And use it I think they will whenever there's a call for a barn owl in a clearly "human" setting.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 226 Posts, 1532 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on July 14, 2011 at 2:56 AM

Very interesting shot - congrats on the WP!
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments