red-phase screech owl

Gallery: AvianPosted December 10, 2011232 views7 comments

Last evening my dog wanted to go out in the yard and I begrudgingly obliged. I quickly noticed this eastern screech owl sitting on a branch along the property line though and hurriedly grabbed my equipment. The hardest part was getting the bird to sit still through the long exposures as it was constantly looking for food. After about 20 minutes the bird took off deeper into suburbia. I think the fact that it was able to fly off and spent little time looking at me and the fact that the eyes were very dilated that the light had little to no effect on this guy. Certainly a great first time experience with this bird

Nikon D300s 300 f4 + 1.7X TC on Gitzo Tripod and Acratech Long Lens head
f/13 (didn't even realize this)
8 seconds
ISO 1000
+.33 EC
Shutter Priority and Manual Focus

Light source was a standard outdoor motion detector light

Cropped to 55%, minor adjustments, sharpened

- Luke

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on December 10, 2011 at 11:45 PM

Good results given the long exposure. Nice to see the red morph as well - I saw more gray morph birds than red when I lived in NJ.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by John Blumenkamp on December 11, 2011 at 1:19 AM

Wow... amazing capture, especially with an 8 second exposure Luke! Nicely done... hope you get more opportunities like this one.

Registered on February 26, 2011, 58 Posts, 313 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on December 11, 2011 at 7:02 AM

Really nice Luke. Nice that you used a long exposure versus a flash. Well done.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on December 11, 2011 at 8:25 AM

This is incredible considering the exp time! I did not know there was a red phase, so thanks for that, too! Hope he comes to your back yard again! Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on December 11, 2011 at 9:18 AM

nice, Luke. shows some noise, but considering the conditions and the amazing 8 second exposure, the results are really good.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Schiebelbein on December 11, 2011 at 8:19 PM

Really nice natural looking shot. You did well considering the conditions.

Registered on November 8, 2008, 55 Posts, 393 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on December 13, 2011 at 9:31 PM

I'm impressed! - by a couple of things. That you were able to get this owl as well as you did with such a long exposure and by the fact that you didn't flash the owl. Good on ya for that.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments