{"id":84817,"date":"2020-05-05T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=84817"},"modified":"2020-05-05T05:30:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:30:04","slug":"short-eared-owl-fledgling-and-light-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/05\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-and-light-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Short-eared Owl Fledgling And Light Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the good light while you can because all too often it’s fleeting.<\/p>\n

Veteran blog readers may have seen a couple of photos of this little charmer in the past but today I’m using two shots of “him” that are new to Feathered Photography.<\/p>\n

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Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I took this photo of a recently fledged Short-eared Owl chick four years ago in Box Elder County. He was perched atop an old tumbleweed that had been caught along the edge of a remote road. His sibling was perched about 4′ out of frame to the right. Here he’s parallaxing in my direction as he’s trying to analyze that big silver pickup directly in front of him.<\/p>\n

He was very close to the road edge so I had no choice but to pass by much closer to him than I normally would which accounts for why he’s so tight in the frame, even with my teleconverter removed. Normally I prefer to give my subjects more room – both physically and in the frame.<\/p>\n

This photo was taken very soon after dawn so the light is warm and wonderful. For a variety of reasons I always at least try to do the majority of my bird photography with the sun low in the sky and warm light is at or near the top of that list.<\/p>\n

But warm light isn’t guaranteed just because it’s early morning or late evening. Light quality can change in an instant for reasons unrelated to sun position.<\/p>\n

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Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

This photo of the same bird was taken less than three minutes after the previous one. I’d lost the warm light quickly when high clouds moved in and began to filter the light into much cooler tones that I find considerably less appealing. At least to some degree light quality is a matter of taste but I’d venture to say that most folks prefer warm light in most (though not all) situations and I’m definitely one of them.<\/p>\n

In fact when the light changed I stopped taking as many photos of the owls because I knew I already had others that I’d like better. The only time I continued to snap away in this cooler light was when the owls struck interesting poses or something else of special interest occurred. In this case it was the house fly that landed on the youngster’s belly.<\/p>\n

So for some folks this second photo might have two strikes against it – cooler light and the intrusive presence of a house fly. After all, Musca domestica<\/em> doesn’t have a lot of fans out there.<\/p>\n

Personally I find the fly interesting and I don’t mind the cooler light, I just prefer the warmer tones. If you’re a photographer with the same preference you’d best use the warm light while you can because it can vanish in an instant.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n