Two Barred Owls + Pentax K-1 and DA* 300mm F4 Lens
Recently I shared this picture of two barred owls on my Instagram. I figured I'd share more detail about the shot here.
This was captured a few miles away from my home on some wooden trails I mountain bike on several times a week. I had seen a barred owl three times prior to this. The first time I missed the shot because I was in aperture priority instead of shutter (too blurry, in my Panasonic FZ35 video). The second time I didn't have a camera on me, and it didn't matter because it blew by too fast. The third time all I had was my Ricoh GR. Not exactly a wildlife camera.
So, imagine my surprise when I went to the lake to take pictures of egrets and heard a big commotion of birds and the shadow of a large bird fly by. At first, I thought it must be a hawk, as I see those somewhat more frequently. The egrets were fishing, which was hard to give up on a hunch, but I decided to go for it and headed towards the bird squeals.
Not long after getting to where I thought the sounds were originating from did I spot the first barred owl high up in a tree. They are very camouflaged birds. I hurried to get my camera out of my backpack and hoped it didn't fly away. It stayed, but I couldn't get a good angle because of loads of tree branches in the way. I quietly maneuvered around to thread a needle through the branches and get a clear a view. I had to laugh a little bit at myself for tip toeing. I'm sure the owl was very much aware of even my breaths.
After snapping a few pictures and feeling very lucky, a second barred owl flew in and landed right by the first. The two cuddled and cleaned each other off and smiled for my pictures. It was really magically. After some glaring I decided to thank them and take off before I agitated them too much.
Shot at F4, 1/800 and 800 ISO. I could have dropped the shutter speed a little, even with the long range. I mostly had it high incase one of them took off into flight.
Editing the image was mostly brightening and increasing contrast. A long with a modest crop. Here is the image straight out of the K-1.
Amazing shot and thank you for writing this up! I enjoy hearing the backstory for a photo. I’ll have to pay more attention to the wildlife when I head out on the trails here in Georgia.
😂 the glare is strong with those two!
