![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/short-eared-owl-8335-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8335-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd temporarily (at least)\u00a0discarding one of my own “rules” about what I like and don’t like in my\u00a0photographs.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D (my Mark II was having problems), Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n
In July of 2016 I was exploring one of the less traveled dirt roads in Montana’s Centennial Valley when I encountered this fledgling Short-eared Owl in the long grasses fairly\u00a0close to\u00a0the road. In my experience fledgling SEO’s tend to be significantly darker than adults but this young owl seemed\u00a0noticeably darker than most and for some reason I find that both appealing and interesting.<\/p>\n
Regular readers know that I’m not fond of my subjects having obstructions in front of them and this bird was largely hidden from\u00a0view so after taking a few documentary shots I drove on down the road to look for other birds.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/short-eared-owl-8352-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8352-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D (my Mark II was having problems), Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n
Sixteen minutes later I had turned around on the road\u00a0and was driving by the same area\u00a0when I\u00a0found the fledgling again and this time it was even more deeply buried in the grasses and a little further away. I almost didn’t even fire my shutter but I did take a few shots and kept a single one – this one. And despite the fact that the\u00a0photo breaks one of my primary rules about what I like and don’t like in my images (significant obstructions in front of the bird)\u00a0this one has grown on me. A lot.<\/p>\n
To me there’s something incredibly endearing about the innocence and na\u00efvet\u00e9\u00a0of this very young owl as it obviously tries to stay hidden from view\u00a0at that same time its bright yellow eyes are almost screaming out at me\u00a0“I’m right\u00a0here, look over here, dummy!”. I like the way the young bird has deliberately placed its face in such a position that the thickest clump of grass is between the eyes which allows it to actually see my pickup through the grass with both eyes. I’m not a cat fan but it reminds me of\u00a0something cute\u00a0a domestic cat might do.<\/p>\n
The appeal of an image is often an individual and very\u00a0personal thing and that’s one of the almost magical elements of photography. While I was culling images two years ago I very nearly consigned this one to the scrap heap. I’m very glad I didn’t.<\/p>\n
For reasons I’ll likely\u00a0go into more deeply in a later post\u00a0fellow bird photographer and good friend Dave Sparks<\/a> has me thinking a lot lately about the “rules” of photography (especially\u00a0as they\u00a0apply to\u00a0image quality) and when they should and shouldn’t be adhered to.<\/p>\n It’s complicated and my views on the subject are evolving…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And temporarily (at least) discarding one of my own “rules” about what I like and don’t like in my photographs.<\/p>\n