Thanks for asking, doogs – the\u00a0timing of your question\u00a0couldn’t have been better. When I received it on my phone at 8:10 AM I was out photographing birds and I had noticed that the very best light was already behind me. I’d been there since dawn at 6:30 (official sunrise was at 5:57 but the nearby\u00a0mountains delay actual sunrise there by about 30 minutes)\u00a0and I still had perhaps 90 minutes of pretty decent light to go but the “magic hour and a half” was already\u00a0history.<\/p>\n
So I decided to use doog’s question and an experience I had with a Short-eared Owl three days ago to\u00a0illustrate something that I think is critical to\u00a0quality bird photography and especially to quality raptor photography. And that something is\u00a0shooting when the sun is low in the sky.<\/p>\n
Most serious\u00a0photographers already know that when the sun is high in the sky light is harsh, shadows are intense and subjects tend to be contrasty.\u00a0None of those conditions contribute to a pleasing image, no matter your subject. But with raptors in particular\u00a0there’s another factor to consider. Most raptors (buteos, falcons, eagles etc) have heavy brow ridges over their eyes and owls have deeply set eyes – both of which throw heavy shadows on the eyes when the sun is high.<\/p>\n
And shaded eyes are almost never a good thing in bird photography. It’s the eyes that make our subjects come alive.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this Short-eared Owl three days ago at 9:45 AM. Because the sun was already so high in the sky I was actually about to head home but couldn’t resist trying when this bird allowed me a close approach. This is my first generally pleasing shot after takeoff but look at those eyes. One looks like it’s half closed, the other is completely shaded,\u00a0the overall light on the bird shows signs of harshness and as one\u00a0might expect under these conditions there’s no catch light.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n And nothing changed in the rest of the series (the eyes looked the same before takeoff too).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n To me it almost appears as if the owl is flying while half-asleep or it’s bored out if its gourd by what it’s doing. Or both.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A\u00a0huge crop of the previous image shows us that the eye is mostly open but the colored iris that needs light on it to stand out is\u00a0largely in shade\u00a0caused by the deeply set nature of owl eyes combined\u00a0with the high sun angle. The heavy brow ridge of other raptors causes similar shadows on the eyes in these conditions.<\/p>\n And the effect is exacerbated by the fact that this late in the day it’s so bright out that the owl has partially closed its upper eyelid…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/short-eared-owl-9690-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-9690-ron-dudley\\"")
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