Female Short-eared Owl Blur – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/80, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
Before the sun came up three days ago and before I photographed the Short-eared Owls chicks I had an opportunity to photograph a female owl perched on a fence post. I wasn’t even prepared to photograph yet, I didn’t have my Noodle on the window, I had left my camera set on my default ISO of 400 which I knew would give me very slow shutter speeds in the low light but I didn’t know if she would fly away so I took a chance that I might get a few sharp images or maybe even a blurry one that I liked.
I was only able to take 35 images of the female Short-eared Owl before she took off and once I hit the shutter button I didn’t stop to raise my ISO to increase my shutter speed because she was rousing and I didn’t want to miss that.
Once she flew off and the sun came up I almost forgot about the very early shots of her until I loaded the files onto my hard drive and started viewing them. I was right, some of the images of her were a mess but when I got to this frame I just had to laugh. Her head and face were sharp, the perch was sharp but everything between her head and the post was a twisty blur. I still can’t figure out how she kept her head still while she shook and roused so vigorously.
I know that blurs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I have grown quite fond of this beautiful, shaking, Short-eared Owl blur.
Life is good, it is even better with laughter.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Short-eared Owl photos plus facts and information about this species.
I love that image, love the blur with the sharp clarity of owl’s face. I was thinking River Dance 😉
Thank you all so much for your comments. I truly appreciate them.
Serendipity at its very best.
Looks to me like she is into hip-hop!! THANK YOU for sharing LIFE and laughter!! As fer me-self, I think the “clear” head is a metaphor – and she is looking right at YOU – or me-self!! Can’t you just feel it???
One of my dogs does a Happy Dance, but I’ve never seen an owl do one before…
I think it’s a great shot! Love the lifted foot and the wing action. It really does look like she’s dancing.
Look like she’s dancing. I love it!
I love this photo! She’s just doing The Twist!
What a great I catch, Mia. Sometimes nature gives us little surprise gems like this. I love this!
Love the shot. Sometimes the unorthodox trumps the conventional. We all have buckets full of images of birds and animals frozen in absolute stop-motion at 1/2000 or so. An image like this is far more expressive of their true nature. In this picture the bird is alive!
Love it!
She is a beaut. Thanks for sharing with us.