Barn Owl & Moon (c)

Taken one evening during a personal photo session with one of the Barn Owls I work with.

Thanks for looking

(c) in title for captive bred

D3 - 105mm VR macro
ISO 100
F19 to get the moon in
1/90th sec with careful use of flash

Good stuff Vince.
Very minor nit but the moon could be moved up a bit
Your mention of flash may bring a response from some I feel, but I,ve done it for years and never had a problem.. They don't hide in thunderstorms do they ? Cheers
john

Hi John

Thanks for the comments & the point about flash, this I feel I have to disagree with you, flash is nothing like a thunderstorm or a bolt of lighting. A captive bred Owl you can learn from & stay with to see the effect a flash gun can have on the birds vision & how long before it can see properly again..

Experience: When flying an Owl to a gloved hand at night & with a flash gun going off in its face, they are affected greatly by the intense burst of light, this I know because they will miss the gloved hand & head straight to the sound of where the whistle is coming from, this being with talons first. Flash can & is very disastrous especially if we have visitors taking shots of their friends or partners flying our Owls at night. Ever been hit in the face by an Owl that is temporally blinded by a flash gun, believe me it hurts

With regards to the moon, it did move but an hour later I was drinking coffee by then

Hi Vince
Points taken- but how the "careful" use of flash then ? A flash going off in "its face " is obviously bad , so how do you do it then. You say they miss the glove, but how far away is the flash ?
In the old days I never had a bird miss a perch or stop feeding the young due to the use of flash. Mind you the flashes weren't that powerful in those days, and we worked at greater distances. You obviously can't have people that use your facilities firing flash all over the place,which is a a slightly different story from a bird in an outside isolated wild situation.
On top of that we only used flash at about every fourth visit or even more at least.
I think there is far more lasting disturbance from other photographic "methods " used today !! But won't go into that !
Cheers
John

Nice pose & perch. I like the inclusion of the moon in the shot.

Lee

H John, The shot was taken at a lower level & not directly to the centre point of eye contact, upward shooting so not directly point blank into the Owls eyes. The Owl was only perched & not flying during this shot. In addition I used a diffuser to help soften the flash used. Personally & from experience I would not shoot a flash gun direct into the centre of the Owls stare, there is a possiblility that it can harm the Owl, that is the point I was making when I mentioned the word carefully. This is a one off shot I needed to promote our Night Owl activities, not night Owl photography

A couple of years back, me & a friend, Kev Lewis experienced a controlled shoot using a flash set up inside. The aim was to fly a Barn Owl side on through a trigger system. When the Owl passed through, the flash guns fired & on 4 occassions, when the Owl attempted to land he missed the perch through lack of vision, the second attempt the Owl hit the wall head on because he could not see it due to the burst of flash, no injury was caused. After that we stopped. During this session the flash was used side on & not face on. Makes you think more about how a flashgun can effect an Owls vision.

An interesting subject to discuss if using flash on Owls when it's dark, a welfare issue if any. I wasn't expecting to go on the defence as I thought this was a good enough image to upload. Must think twice about using certain words like "carefully"

Cheers Lee, with a clear sky & the moon there I thought it would make a good image.

Vince

Hi, great night shot. Moon gives it something extra.
Thanks for explaining how-to and why.

Vincent, the respect,passion, care you have for your birds is plain to see from every photo, on every forum I see you beautiful images in, and upon reading how you set this photo up with the owl's welfair being paramount is a credit to you and there's know need to explain yourself. Your centre for me is leading from the front reguarding exceptional primary care,teaching them to trust human's,conditions,trainning,and learning of basic skills they may not use as a captive bird very much, these birds bring alot of pleasure to alot of people/children and that is very good, the photo for me looks great with the bird very relaxed, love the moon! and the perch, very nice photo vincent, take care

Nice work Vince, shame the moon wasn't bigger but I'm sure that can be done by merging a coupe of images, but really like the idea. Keep up the good work with your birds.

Brett

Nice shot Vincent.

Vince, you're just training these birds too well!

Getting him to put his wing down to hide the jesses is taking the p.....s!

Crackin' shot, and I've always remembered your advice about Owls and flash. Take care.

Ian

I really like the whole thing,superb!!!!

Keith.

I have always wondered how to get some shots of owls at night and there go, just like that !

Drew