Why I love IS (1 Viewer)

I've been trying to shoot our local Barn Owl for some time - with increasing frustration. If I have my camera set up and ready then it'll delay its hunting expeditions until late evening, when its too dark. Or it'll just do a quick fly-through of the field and disappear elsewhere.

If I don't have the camera ready then it will spend ages flying back and forth across the field in wonderful sunset light.

Yesterday I had my camera sitting by the back door. It had the 300 f/2.8 attached along with a 2x TC (from some earlier test shots). Sure enough the Barn Owl turned up late. And, to really rub it in, it decided to perch on the garden fence! Well, even if the light was dire, I wasn't going to let it get away with that. So I picked up the camera, opened it up to its maximum aperture (f/5.6 - ugh) and ISO 800, propped my self in the open doorway and started shooting. With dismay I saw that it was using 1/30s :C So I upped the ISO to 1600, rattled off a few more, then, as I was removing the TC it flew off.

Damn! Missed again. But this morning I thought I may as well look at the images anyway. Most are complete crap, but one of the 1/30s images wasn't too bad. Indeed, with a bit of PP, it looks pretty good. Didi can't believe I can hold myself steady enough to get a decent shot at 1/30s at an equivalent of 960mm.

Anyway I'll now go back to waiting for it to do a repeat performance sometime earlier in the evening.

So let me get this right. You can photograph Barn Owls from your back door and your moaning about it!?

Well done though Frank, I know all too well the frustrations a Barn Owl can inflict on one's psyche! Patience and perseverance will win out in the end. :t:

Jaff said:

So let me get this right. You can photograph Barn Owls from your back door and your moaning about it!?

Click to expand...

Yes, can't believe how lucky I am. Sometimes we get a pair of Barnies hunting in the field, and two nights ago I could hear three Tawny Owls from the garden. But I'm not as lucky as Didi. Last winter she managed to get shots of a Short-Eared Owl hunting out in the field.

I want one too Actually, I have (Lesser Antillean) Barn Owl around the house, but it never shows itself until well after dark. One of my best observations was an early morning, almost two hours before sunrice, I sat on the balcony with my breakfast and it came to the nearest tree which was partially lit by the lamp I was using.

Niels

Congratulations, Frank. Thanks to the benefits of shooting digitally we no longer worry about the cost per frame as we did in the good old film days. Quite often I have had similar luck, but you only need one good shot out of many to get a reasonable result. Three cheers for IS!

Mike

thanks to IS, I have taken this shot I would otherwise have screwed big time:
http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/270328/limit/recent

small version:

You got to get yourself some camo sheet and lay in wait like a being in bed, OWLs at the back door blimey you are lucky............