Photography 101 – Moment

Posted on by Louise Bunting

owl

Owl

Lady of battle,
unearthly predator on
soft wings,
stealthily
passing by.
Silent.
Deadly.
A momentary presence,
there and gone.
What wisdom lies
behind wide
eyes?
What secrets
do you spy?
Claws extend;
judgement is passed.

owl 5

The barn owl is often spotted flying over the field behind our house. Each time this happens I grab my camera and try to get pictures of it. Usually, by the time I get there it’s gone! This time I was lucky.  The second picture captures more of the sense of movement and the fleeting moment, while I think the first captures the owl itself better.

Here are a few others:

owl 3 owl 2owl 4

25 thoughts on “Photography 101 – Moment”

    1. Thank you. I’ve been told there is a pair that live in a barn not far from our house, though I’ve only ever seen one at a time. The field behind our house is perfect hunting ground for them. 😀

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  6. Beautiful! Great movement in your words and photographs. Owls are so magical, how cool that you have one living close by, where you get to catch a glimpse like this once in a while. Amazing.

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  10. So I looked at your owls a few times I totally love the concept, framing and colors. However there is something missing, sharpness. I looked into this because I’m always curious why some things are the way they are. But let me also tell you that I’m jealous I have no owls living close to me. I want to make you aware of why they are not sharp so you can have even better images if you are able to catch this again. (I hope so)
    You use a 70-300 mm zoom-lens that is set to 300 mm to get the owl close, good decision!. But I see your aperture is 5.6 that is probably the widest aperture your lens can do. In that case your depth of field is 0.15 feet. That means you have to have a very fast focus for a owl in flight otherwise you miss a focal point and sharpness. If you switch to aperture priority and set it to f11 you double the depth of field to 0.31 inch and have more chance to get it sharp. Keep in mind that when you use the 300 mm setting and the lens is not stabilized you need a shutter-speed of at least 1/300 sec. to prevent motion blur when handheld. So you might have to up the ISO but that was on 400 already. I know a long story but I would like to see your next one sharp and I know you are able to pull that off, wanna bet? I encourage people to grow their skills and hope I explained it well enough otherwise just contact me and I will be delighted to put more detail to it.
    Well done and keep hunting for those Owls!

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    1. Thank you! I will be trying that out. As I’ve mentioned before I’m a complete newbie when it comes to the technical side of photography so all advice is good 😀

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  11. You are welcome.
    Another tip related to the previous one. Change the focus mode to AI Servo
    In this mode (the AI stands for artificial intelligence, if you care), the camera adjusts focus continually as needed from when you press the shutter button halfway to the time you take the picture. This mode is designed to make focusing on moving subjects easier.

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    1. They’re wonderful creatures. 🙂 I love to watch them fly over the field behind our house – usually they’re too far away for me to take good pictures. I was lucky on this day!

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