Great Horned Owl

[Jaime Johnson]

We knew where this guy was, so we packed up the camera gear, tripod, light stands, lights, Radio controls and did a 2.5 mile hike (each way) in 8 inches of snow to get to where he was roosting.

A three second burst of images and it was all over….


http://jaimejohnson.zenfolio.com/

Canon 1d Mark IV / Canon 500mm f4 / Pocket wizard TT5, TT1 / Canon 580 EXII

 

[Don Cohen]

Spectacular Jaime! Your efforts and planning definitely paid off here.

I'd be very interested in the details of how the shot was obtained: more than one flash? How were the stands/lights used? Night-time shot?

Owls will give horrendous red-eye at night, so clearly the lighting was used off angle, and the result is just perfect!

 

[Anthony Reilly]

WoW !!

Fantastic shot, i'm rather jealous haha

Atb Ant

 

[Asher Kelman]

We knew where this guy was, so we packed up the camera gear, tripod, light stands, lights, Radio controls and did a 2.5 mile hike (each way) in 8 inches of snow to get to where he was roosting.

A three second burst of images and it was all over….

http://jaimejohnson.zenfolio.com/

Canon 1d Mark IV / Canon 500mm f4 / Pocket wizard TT5, TT1 / Canon 580 EXII

Jaime,

This is fabulous. Great preparation is always important to photographers who want that lucky shot! I hope we get to see some others in the various bursts of images.

This is action that no mouse lives to tell his friends over a cold beer!

Asher

 

[Jaime Johnson]

Spectacular Jaime! Your efforts and planning definitely paid off here.

I'd be very interested in the details of how the shot was obtained: more than one flash? How were the stands/lights used? Night-time shot?

Owls will give horrendous red-eye at night, so clearly the lighting was used off angle, and the result is just perfect!

I used a couplle Pocket Wizard Flex TT5's with 580EXII's on stands away from the camera (set on really low power). Then a Pocket Wizard TT1 on the camera to trigger both 580EXII flash via the Pocket Wizard TT5's. Setting sun was heavy on the left side (West) and the right was in shadow. I centered with the camera and a tripods and had the two flashes (set low power) on light stands on the right (off center) to even it out. TT5's and TT1's allow for wireless flash. I pushed the button - not remote. It was shot at 1/1000, but really didn't work exactly like I wanted. He flew about 3 feet over my head!

He flies at about the same time every evening, we tried it again last week - but missed him by a few seconds..

 

[Don Cohen]

Thanks for the additional info, Jaime. I was wondering if it was motion-triggered, but apparently not - great reflexes! I'm sure you'll get some more and I'll be anxious to see them.