Barn Owl 33f crop

Barn Owl 19 crop

Barn owl  (Tyto alba)

I've always wanted to photograph wild barn owls in flight, so in late January 2008 I went with a couple of friends to North Norfolk for a few days to see what we could find.  We were amazed at just how many owls we saw, and after a little homework we spent a couple of mornings and evenings on 2 owls.  Unfortunately, one had a couple of feathers out of place, but it does prove the owl is wild.  

Barn Owl 23

Barn Owl 26 crop

The light throughout the trip was quite dull, and coupled with the time of day that the owls came out to hunt, forced me into shooting at higher than normal ISO ratings.  With the Canon 5D, I would try to keep the ISO at 400 or below, but almost always the results were blurred through poor panning or even focus tracking.  Too many images were lost to the bin.  The images below were taken at 500ASA, 400ASA, 320ASA and 200ASA respectively, each one showing, even at web size, the difference in quality of the image.  It is the shutter speed that determines what ISO to use, and I discovered that 1/500th or faster is ideally needed, but as low as 1/200th was possible with good panning technique (such as image 33f - shot at 400ASA).  Thankfully, I think the aesthetic and interest value of the images more than compensates for any loss of quality, so I'm quite happy with these - for now.

 Barn Owl 39

  Barn Owl crop 40

  Barn Owl crop 21

  Barn Owl 38

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