Some cuddly snowy owls

[Cem_Usakligil]

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

A closer look

 

[Ivan Garcia]

HI Cem
Lovely shot. I wouldn't cuddle that.. I like my fingers too much, I need them to press the various functions in my camera lol.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Me wants pettings, mmmhhhh...

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

HI Cem
Lovely shot. I wouldn't cuddle that.. I like my fingers too much, I need them to press the various functions in my camera lol.

Indeed, LOL. I need not tell that these are captive animals I presume?

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

A closer look

That's a beautiful shot Cem. My owl shots were so so with regards to the plane of focus, unlike this one. Which aperture did you use?

Cheers,
Bart

 

[janet Smith]

Love the second one Cem, beautiful detail in the creamy white feathers, looks like you had a great day.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

HI Cem
Lovely shot. I wouldn't cuddle that.. I like my fingers too much, I need them to press the various functions in my camera lol.

Hi Ivan,

You're right, never underestimate these birds.

They can be cuddly one moment:

And throw a (literally) hissy fit the next moment:

The falconers need thick leader gloves to protect themselves from the talons alone, and the beaks can rip off flesh with relative ease.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

That's a beautiful shot Cem. My owl shots were so so with regards to the plane of focus, unlike this one. Which aperture did you use?

Hi Bart,

It was f 5.6. Many of my pictures are also focused on the feathers around their beaks and not on the eyes themselves.

Hi Ivan,

You're right, never underestimate these birds.

They can be cuddly one moment:

And throw a (literally) hissy fit the next moment:

The falkoners need thick leader gloves to protect themselves from the talons alone, and the beaks can rip off flesh with relative ease.

Right, indeed. But I still thought that they looked very cute, LOL.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Wow! That's a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery brave child, methinks.

Great shots, also.

 

[Rachel Foster]

I was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park a few days ago on a "photo safari." One of the other people there was a professional wild life photographer (but I didn't get his name). He had a beauty of a lens.....wide to super tele (17 to 400? 28 to 400? something, and on a Nikon), but he told me he shot the whole thing on 5.6. I was surprised and thought a smaller aperture would have been used.

I opened up from 9 to to 5.6. I'm not thrilled with all the results, but that's due to reasons other than the aperture.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Wow! That's a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery brave child, methinks.

Hi Rachel,

Actually, she's an apprentice falconer. She and the birds were being trained at the same time. She's got the bird affection at a young age indeed. The owner of the place got into the business when he was 14.

These people have a real passion for the birds, even the ugly ones (e.g. vultures), and those are scary (but you'll be okay as long as you keep moving, they go for dead meat, not the moving kind).

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Ivan Garcia]

Cem and Bart... Looks like you guys had a beauty of a day.
Great shots from both of you. We want more
(edited as my post crossed with Bart's)