Almost the end of November and they're baaaack !!
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| ' wary glance ' |
I recently made some time to visit an area that has provided most of my opportunities to photography Snowy Owls and was again rewarded with sightings ... two separate sightings on two separate days (likely the same bird).
This image of a female or immature male Snowy Owl was made on the second day, when the bird was much closer to an accessible vantage point. I was able to get close enough for this highly cropped image (approximately 60% of the original frame height) from my Canon R5 in 1.6 crop mode with EF100-400 LII and EF1.4x III (effective focal length 896mm).
There is no substitute for focal length when photographing birds, not just focal length, good glass and high mega pixel resolution all play an important part. I like to photograph birds, in particular, unique species like the Snowy Owls and Bald Eagles I can find near our cottage. If I was more dedicated to bird photography, my expenditure on lenses would be significantly greater. I'm not saying never, but for now I'll stick with the gear I have and get what I can get image wise.
Sadly, I've decided that I will I no longer share locations of where I find and photograph wildlife on social media. I've seen and heard of too many instances where wildlife are harassed by over exuberant photogs too focused on getting the shot to the detriment of stressing the animal. I'm not saying that I have no impact on my subjects, but I strive to observe and read the animal's behaviour to know when to move on ... as I did with the owl in this week's photo. I had spent some time at the side of a busy road close to this beauty when it became evident that other cars were slowing down and my presence I was drawing more attention to the bird. As experience has taught, soon other's would be stopping and ... well, I'll just say it usually doesn't go the way I would prefer.
DJE
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