The Owl at Sunset
From my balcony at home in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada I see some wonderful sunsets behind the rocky mountains to the west. Often I will step out onto the balcony to make a few shots if the light is nice. I try to mix it up a bit with different lenses and focal lengths and framing differently in order to make 'new' images as much as is possible from a static location.
I remember this evening in february 2017, standing on the balcony with my 24-70 mm lens not quite getting what I wanted from the shot so I went indoors and grabbed the 70 -200mm to compress the background and draw the mountains in closer. I waited until the sun was below the mountains to reduce the heavy contrast between it and the foreground so the winter skeletons of the birch trees could be seen in front of the silhouetted conifers behind, and I could get some definition in the distant mountains.
With everything in place I made an image and then adjusted shutter speed and made a second. As I looked up from making the second shot, this huge 'great horned owl' swooped in and landed on top of one of the conifers. I instinctively reframed and fired off a shot with the same settings as he struggled to balance on the weak stem. During the balancing act he turned around entirely and faced the other way momentarily and I made another shot, then he was gone.
Looking at the EXIF data there are 4 seconds between the two shots, in that time I had considered zooming in but decided a closer silhouette of the owl would be less interesting, I considered a slower shutter to better expose the owl but it would kill the background by overexposure. I had to reframe to get him in the frame and remember the basic rules of composition while doing so and ultimately I made the best of the opportunity and got two good shots before he was gone.
There's no doubt that I was fortunate that this beautiful creature decided to land right in front of me, that bit was lucky without a doubt, but everything beyond that was tradecraft and the resulting image would be far less pleasing without it.
I remember this evening in february 2017, standing on the balcony with my 24-70 mm lens not quite getting what I wanted from the shot so I went indoors and grabbed the 70 -200mm to compress the background and draw the mountains in closer. I waited until the sun was below the mountains to reduce the heavy contrast between it and the foreground so the winter skeletons of the birch trees could be seen in front of the silhouetted conifers behind, and I could get some definition in the distant mountains.
With everything in place I made an image and then adjusted shutter speed and made a second. As I looked up from making the second shot, this huge 'great horned owl' swooped in and landed on top of one of the conifers. I instinctively reframed and fired off a shot with the same settings as he struggled to balance on the weak stem. During the balancing act he turned around entirely and faced the other way momentarily and I made another shot, then he was gone.
Looking at the EXIF data there are 4 seconds between the two shots, in that time I had considered zooming in but decided a closer silhouette of the owl would be less interesting, I considered a slower shutter to better expose the owl but it would kill the background by overexposure. I had to reframe to get him in the frame and remember the basic rules of composition while doing so and ultimately I made the best of the opportunity and got two good shots before he was gone.
There's no doubt that I was fortunate that this beautiful creature decided to land right in front of me, that bit was lucky without a doubt, but everything beyond that was tradecraft and the resulting image would be far less pleasing without it.