A Tale OF A Barn Owl Tail
I learned something this morning. It will likely seem inconsequential to others but it was sort of a big deal for me. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in A few minutes ago, while processing this recent Barn Owl image, I was once again struck by how short and stubby the square tail of this species is, especially when compared to the length of the wings. And then some faint memory from long ago popped into my head. Bingo! Now it all made sense. 1/320, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in By coincidence, exactly 5 years ago today I posted this image to an online nature photography critique forum (Nature Photographers Network or NPN). At the time I was just becoming serious about my bird photography and I took the critiques I got on that forum to heart – trying to learn from my mistakes and improve my skills. In the version of the photo I submitted to NPN I didn’t recognize the “structure” marked with the red arrow as being part of the bird so I had cropped the image in such a manner that I “clipped” the tip of that structure. The critiques I got from the members of the forum “dinged” me for it, and rightfully so. They all said that I had clipped the tail and in my inexperience I assumed they were right and went on with my life. But I felt pretty silly…