![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/short-eared-owl-7881b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-7881b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nVery few low light flight shots appeal to me but this one is an exception.<\/p>\n
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1\/1000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I took the photo on the evening of\u00a0June 25, 2010 as this male Short-eared Owl flew past me with a vole in\u00a0his talons at Red Rock Lakes NWR. It was cloudy\u00a0so the light was low but just before he approached me the clouds in front of the sun thinned just enough to provide sufficient\u00a0light on the owl\u00a0to get barely enough\u00a0shutter speed\u00a0for a bird in flight. I got a series of shots of him with the still-shaded mountains in the background and I’ve always loved this layered effect with the dark blue\u00a0above.<\/p>\n It appears to me that the\u00a0vole might still be alive (they often are in this situation). It looks like a fat little guy partly\u00a0because it’s doubled over and\u00a0possibly\u00a0reaching behind it in an attempt to bite the foot of the owl (notice its splayed rear legs). When they’re bitten raptors\u00a0sometimes drop their prey in flight.\u00a0Rehabbers tell me that raptors\u00a0often have old scars on their feet and legs\u00a0from\u00a0rodent bites that\u00a0can become infected.<\/p>\n But then again it might be doubled over just because it’s dead and the air currents in flight forced its body into that position.<\/p>\n I’ve posted other shots in the series but never this one because the owl was too close to\u00a0the right side of the frame to give me the\u00a0composition I preferred. I had\u00a0three choices – add canvas on the right side, make it a vertical composition or have the bird centered in the frame. I try to avoid adding canvas whenever possible and I thought the vertical composition looked contrived so I chose to center the bird.<\/p>\n This is the first time I’ve seen the processed photo. I like it much better than I thought I would.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Very few low light flight shots appeal to me but this one is an exception.<\/p>\n