A friend of mine keeps posting the most beautiful owl photographs, taken at Boundary Bay, about 25km south of Vancouver. As I was passing nearby, I did some research online to find the most likely spot.
Not a recommended outing if you suffer from lens envy -- there were probably enough $5,000-$10,000 lenses there to buy a small house (even at Vancouver prices!)
Wildlife photography is not particularly my forte -- I neither have the equipment for it (my telephoto lens was relatively low-quality on a crop-frame camera, and using it on a full-frame camera it's positively ropey at times) nor the expertise! However, it turns out that owls are (or at least, these ones are) pretty easy to photograph -- they're not particularly concerned about humans wandering around.
Light was very limited, which again didn't help, but the camera's fantastic low-light performance made these salvageable. The combination of a lack of sharpness and a fair amount of noise means that these would never be suitable for printing, but they're not too bad at web sizes.
I think this is the first owl outside captivity I've actually seen! I'll probably return on a brighter day -- there was a bald eagle flying around, and there are some snowy owls in the area as well, which is very unusual as they are native to the Arctic regions.
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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Nice capture.Were Iam from there are not so many owls,Hard to even see one let alone get a photo of one.I had one land in a tree with me about a month ago while hunting. It was about 10 feet away from me.No need for a bigger lens but that is what I had on my camera at the time.Myself with wildlife photography the challenge is how close you can you let it get.Before you or it get scared.Love your photo fav
Fav! This is amazing Alexis. His eyes are piercing and the detail of his feathers is excellent. Well done. I would say that your equipment is just fine.
lol really like your description...lens envy. :) This is really a nice sharp photo. Later when the rain lets up I plan to try photographing wildlife again. I hope to capture something this good.
WOW! This is a fav. I have owl's here but I never can find them. I hear them all the time early morning. I can't go off looking for them because I have to get off to work.
