{"id":3009,"date":"2011-11-03T15:44:36","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T21:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2011-11-04T07:13:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T13:13:34","slug":"barn-owls-and-phragmites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/03\/barn-owls-and-phragmites\/","title":{"rendered":"Barn Owls and Phragmites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barn Owls are among my favorite avian subjects.\u00a0 They’re uncommon, elusive and rarely active in daytime so they’re devilishly difficult to photograph in good light – especially in flight.\u00a0\u00a0 And they’re unique – so different from other owl species (heart-shaped facial disc, smaller eyes, a short\u00a0squared tail and serrated central claws)\u00a0that they’re given their own family classification – Tytonidae<\/em>.\u00a0 They’re the most wide-spread species of owl on earth, though their numbers are declining.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, very occasionally<\/em>, I’ve had the opportunity to photograph them in daylight.\u00a0 Around here they can sometimes be found hunting for voles at the edge of\u00a0Phragmites<\/em> stands at the local marshes during the early mornings of the coldest days of winter.\u00a0\u00a0 Phragmites <\/em>is a very large perennial grass found in our wetlands that causes many problems for\u00a0wetlands managers because it produces substances that are toxic to more beneficial species of marsh plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"barn-owl-0542\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

As problematic as Phragmites<\/em> can be I’ve found it to be a wonderful background for photographs of birds in flight.\u00a0 And since these owls fly during daytime only when it’s very cold the Phragmites<\/em>\u00a0is often covered with heavy frost in the mornings which can soften the background and make it very pleasing to\u00a0the eye.\u00a0\u00a0 If the grasses are close to the bird they appear fairly well-defined.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"barn-owl-0032\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

But if they’re far away the bokeh of the background is softened even more, giving relatively subtle hints of texture and form.\u00a0\u00a0I think the sharper foreground phrags in this\u00a0photo help to give depth to the image.\u00a0 If the owl had been bisected by the transition from blue sky to the browns of the grasses I don’t think this would have worked as well as it does (even though the bird is relatively small in the frame).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"barn-owl-0265\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes the grasses aren’t directly behind the bird but below it.\u00a0 I like that effect too as they provide a sense of place and seem to anchor the bird in the image.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One interesting thing about Barn Owls is illustrated in this photo.\u00a0 Because their eyes are so\u00a0deeply set in the skull\u00a0it’s very difficult to get a catch light in the eye.\u00a0 I don’t think I’ve photographed any other species where getting light in the eye is so challenging.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"barn-owl-0695\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

At times when\u00a0the Phragmites<\/em>\u00a0is at an intermediate distance behind the bird (and depending of course on what aperture you’re using)\u00a0you’ll get just enough form, texture and color behind the bird to give a hint at the setting the bird is flying in.\u00a0 I like this effect also, especially with the frost on the grasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0So yes, Phragmites <\/em>is a scourge for wetland managers but for us bird photographers they can be a blessing and in some ways I really appreciate them.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

PS – If you like Barn Owl images I have more posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barn Owls are among my favorite avian subjects.\u00a0 They’re uncommon, elusive and rarely active in daytime so they’re devilishly difficult to photograph in good light – especially in flight.\u00a0\u00a0 And they’re unique – so different from other owl species (heart-shaped facial disc, smaller eyes, a short\u00a0squared tail and serrated central claws)\u00a0that they’re given their own family classification – Tytonidae.\u00a0 They’re the most wide-spread species of owl on earth, though their numbers are declining. Occasionally, very occasionally, I’ve had the opportunity to photograph them in daylight.\u00a0 Around here they can sometimes be found hunting for voles at the edge of\u00a0Phragmites stands at the local marshes during the early mornings of the coldest days of winter.\u00a0\u00a0 Phragmites is a very large perennial grass found in our wetlands that causes many problems for\u00a0wetlands managers because it produces substances that are toxic to more beneficial species of marsh plants.\u00a0   \u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc As problematic as Phragmites can be I’ve found it to be a wonderful background for photographs of birds in flight.\u00a0 And since these owls fly during daytime only when it’s very cold the Phragmites\u00a0is often covered with heavy frost in the mornings which can soften the background and make it very pleasing to\u00a0the eye.\u00a0\u00a0 If the grasses are close to the bird they appear fairly well-defined.     \u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc But if they’re far away the bokeh of the background is softened even more, giving relatively subtle hints of texture and form.\u00a0\u00a0I think the sharper foreground phrags in this\u00a0photo…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[344,334,8,15],"tags":[45,526,59,521,241,250,286,309,525],"class_list":["post-3009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barn-owls","category-birds","category-ecology-and-environment","category-owls","tag-barn-owl","tag-bird-backgrounds","tag-bokeh","tag-frost","tag-owl","tag-phragmites","tag-snow","tag-tyto-alba","tag-tytonidae"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-Mx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}