![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/short-eared-owl-4327-horizontal-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-4327-horizontal-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nSome up close and personal looks at a very handsome bird.<\/p>\n
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Just over three years ago I spent some time with this Short-eared Owl in Box Elder County. I don’t remember the exact circumstances of why I was as close to the bird as I was but with my teleconverter attached I couldn’t fit all of him in the frame so I took a few portraits before I removed it.<\/p>\n
In this profile view I enjoy the detailed look at the facial disc, eye and bill. I think the clean and homogenous background works well with this type of shot because there’s nothing back there to pull our eye away from the owl so we can really concentrate on nothing but the bird.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/short-eared-owl-4327-vertical-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-4327-vertical-ron-dudley\\"")
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One thing I typically do when I have a very sharp closeup photo of a bird is perform an extreme crop so I can see detail I’d never be able see in the field. I rarely post those highly cropped versions but this time I decided to make an exception.<\/p>\n
If you’ve ever held an owl in the hand you know from experience how very soft their plumage feels compared to other birds and this highly detailed view gives us a hint as to why. Their feathers are extremely fine and not so “crisp” as other birds. This is something that bird photographers often notice in their photos because fine detail in owls can be more difficult to see in our images. A few other species like waxwings share that trait, though to a slightly lesser degree.<\/p>\n
Head shots like these aren’t my typical fare. Usually I prefer to see the entire bird but occasionally I like to spread my photographic wings a little…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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PS – I have to share one of the frustrations of bird photography with my viewers. We’ve had mostly gloomy skies for many months now but yesterday morning we actually had some decent light and I’d have loved to have gone out shooting but I was stuck at home. I had an appointment for a repairman to visit my home and fix an ongoing and highly mysterious furnace malfunction in my camping trailer. So stay home I did.<\/em><\/p>\n But in the end it was a wasted photographic opportunity for me because the repairman still can’t figure out for sure what’s wrong. He’ll come back again on Monday but I made damned sure it would be in the afternoon this time so I can still go out shooting in the morning if we have any light.<\/em><\/p>\n