As I mentioned in yesterday’s post of the Great-Horned Owl that I found while kayaking (If you missed that post, click here to see it), I saw a young Barred Owl (Strix varia) sitting in a tree, beyond the Great Horned Owl as I photographed. So, after the horned owl left, I paddled the kayak over to the area where I had seen the Barred Owl, and was surprised to see 2 young Barred Owls! The sun had not yet risen, so I was using my camera’s maximum ISO setting (12,800) in order to shoot, handheld from the kayak, and to try to get some shake-free images. The aperture was set to f/5.6 and the shutter speed was in the range of 1/200 sec to 1/250 sec. So, although it looks like good daylight, these images were actually in the pre-sunrise hour (“civil twilight”). Here’s a few of my favorite images of one of the young babes as I let the kayak float about the lake:
The second owlet was sitting in a nearby tree, much higher up. So as the sun began to rise over the horizon, I focused on him and caught him as he left his perch for the woods:
In this last image, I was still using an ISO of 12,00 and the aperture was still at f/5.6, but the shutter speed was an amazing 1/8,000 second … it is sooooo much easier to capture shake-free images when you can shoot this quickly! By the way, most of my current photos are being made with the Canon 7D camera, which I purchased back in the winter. I love this camera and it’s ability to shoot wildlife photographs :o)
While I was paddling the lake, I also ran across the Great Horned Owl that I featured in yesterday’s post, this time in a live tree and preening:
