{"id":94834,"date":"2021-02-12T06:33:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T13:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=94834"},"modified":"2021-02-12T08:10:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T15:10:40","slug":"the-first-short-eared-owl-i-ever-photographed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/12\/the-first-short-eared-owl-i-ever-photographed\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Short-eared Owl I Ever Photographed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day I realized that spending a king’s ransom on one of the best and most expensive birding lenses on the market hadn’t been a mistake.<\/p>\n

In the early summer of 2007 I was still a wannabe bird photographer. At the urging of a mentor I had just purchased one of the most expensive birding lenses available but I really didn’t have the skills to use it to anywhere near its potential and I was extremely fearful that I’d spent all that money on what would become a passing fancy. And then what would I do? I’d have to tuck my tail between my legs and sell the lens at a loss, probably a big one.<\/p>\n

At that point I’d made several short trips to closer birding areas with my new lens but I hadn’t been able to get any photos that were anything special that got my photographic juices flowing so I was still in limbo. I was a recently retired teacher living on a modest pension so I had to wonder if I’d made one of the biggest financial mistakes of my life.<\/p>\n

Then, on July 7, 2007, I made a trip to Bear River MBR.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon XTi, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 II Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

On the access road to the refuge I spotted this Short-eared Owl in excellent early morning light and I immediately got buck fever. I just knew it would fly off before I got close but the bird surprised me and stuck. I’ll admit that I was shaking with excitement so my first photos were soft but the owl gave me enough time to settle down and get some nice shots.<\/p>\n

This bird was the first Short-eared Owl and perhaps even the first owl of any species I’d photographed with my new lens so I was on top of the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/1250, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon XTi, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 II Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Only 17 minutes later when I arrived at the parking lot of the refuge I found this Barn Swallow in distress. ‘He’ had some kind of debris stuck between his outside primary wing feather and one of his tail feathers so he was one pissed off bird. Obviously he couldn’t fly so he stayed on the post and struggled and almost screamed in distress. I photographed him for quite a while before he eventually broke the bond between his feathers and flew off in an instant.<\/p>\n

At that point I hadn’t even begun to tour the refuge but I already knew that I was in love with my new lens and my bird photography career would be a lasting one. In fact I sat in the parking lot reviewing my owl and swallow photos on my camera screen for much too long before continuing along the auto tour route.<\/p>\n

I was so excited by my results that morning it wasn’t long before I bought a new camera (the Canon 40D) to replace the cheap and wholly inadequate Canon XTi which was the first DSLR camera I’d ever purchased. That dinky little camera looked silly as hell on the end of my huge new lens anyway.<\/p>\n

After all, I had an image to maintain. Or al least to begin building…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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