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![\"burrowing](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/burrowing-owl-6270-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"burrowing")
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\u00a01\/160, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n This morning we think we found a new (to us) Burrowing Owl burrow right next to the road\u00a0on Antelope Island that we’ve probably driven by several hundred times and never noticed.\u00a0 We don’t know for sure that it’s an owl\u00a0burrow because we didn’t get out of the pickup and go tromping all over the area to inspect it.\u00a0 And right next to it was this juvenile owl, perched on a sagebrush, where we’d never seen an owl before.\u00a0 It had been cloudy but some light had begun peeking through a “crack” in the clouds when this shot was taken.<\/p>\n It’s a “busy” perch and when the sun began to come\u00a0out the bird was sidelit so I decided to change my position slightly…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/320, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n so I\u00a0backed up (I shoot from my pickup) perhaps 20 feet.<\/p>\n That small change of position\u00a0transformed the shot completely.\u00a0 The bird is now\u00a0lit from the front instead of the side,\u00a0there’s dried vegetation in the background instead of water, I have a side view of the owl instead of a frontal view\u00a0and the perch looks\u00a0like a completely different sagebrush than it did in the first image.\u00a0 In\u00a0fact, it\u00a0seems like the\u00a0owl must have moved after the first shot but I’m\u00a0almost positive\u00a0that it didn’t so much as wiggle a toe.\u00a0 The images were taken two minutes apart.<\/p>\n But dagnab it, I sure wish that one sagebrush sprig wasn’t in front of the face and shoulder!\u00a0 And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t even notice it in the field – only when I got home and started reviewing images.\u00a0 Soooo many things to be cognizant of when you’re “out there” shooting…<\/p>\n I think it’s kind of interesting to compare the two images.\u00a0 For example, that blasted sagebrush sprig in front of the face in the second shot can be seen to the left of the bird in the first image.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’d like to make a point with this post.\u00a0 It’s one that every\u00a0experienced bird photographer knows on some level but in the heat of the moment (it can be very exciting getting close to\u00a0a “good” bird in nice light) it’s one that is easily forgotten.\u00a0 I’m\u00a0getting much better at remembering but I still slip up occasionally. The point?\u00a0\u00a0Very minor changes in your\u00a0shooting position can make huge\u00a0differences (positive, negative or indifferent) in your photo.\u00a0 I’ll illustrate that point with a couple of\u00a0shots that I took this morning.\u00a0 They’re not my best Burrowing Owl images but they’ll serve\u00a0their purpose here. \u00a01\/160, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This morning we think we found a new (to us) Burrowing Owl burrow right next to the road\u00a0on Antelope Island that we’ve probably driven by several hundred times and never noticed.\u00a0 We don’t know for sure that it’s an owl\u00a0burrow because we didn’t get out of the pickup and go tromping all over the area to inspect it.\u00a0 And right next to it was this juvenile owl, perched on a sagebrush, where we’d never seen an owl before.\u00a0 It had been cloudy but some light had begun peeking through a “crack” in the clouds when this shot was taken. It’s a “busy” perch and when the sun began to come\u00a0out the bird was sidelit so I decided to change my position slightly… \u00a01\/320, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or…<\/p>\n![\"burrowing](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/burrowing-owl-6291-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"burrowing")
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