There are special evenings in life. One of which was last night as I watched the full moon rise behind a Snowy Owl at the beginning of its evening hunt. The images are just one camera exposure each, not a combination of multiple images. Trying to get the moon and the owl both in focus was an extreme challenge. The slow shutter speeds I needed to utilize to capture enough light forced blurring difficulties as the moon is actually moving quite fast. The color of the moon changes as it rises in the sky because there is less atmospheric dust to shine through (As the moon rose I was changing my position relative to the owl to keep the moon and the owl in the same frame). Finally I have included the final image BECAUSE it is dark and demonstrates I do NOT use flash for night photography of owls.
My favorite photograph from last night is the third image. For over a year I have been trying to capture a Snowy Owl against the full moon rising. There is only about 20 minutes of effective photography time, and that assumes I have first found a Snowy Owl right before dark (and it stays in place) and then have totally clear skies and a full moon.
What a treat to see this! Inspirational! Thanks Rich!
Super cool photos!
WOW! Fantastic and thank you for all your photos.
They are all fantastic! Beautiful work’
Amazing pictures Richard! Thanks for sharing!
Excellent planning and execution. However, I don’t see anything wrong with 1 photo focused on the owl and another focused on the moon and combined in post processing. But that’s just me.
The snowy owl framed by the full moon? Those are wonderful photos … particularly considering all the variables including simply being in the right-spot at the right-time …. which in itself requires years of trying, but just NOT being in the right-spot at the right time.
Ray: I very much agree with your comment. There is absolutely nothing wrong with combining multiple images into one finished photograph. This obviously assumes the end result represents what was seen, or is identified for the viewer as being “creative”. I personally like to see what I can accomplish with just one click of the shutter, but I will admit to using HDR on occasion to deal with dramatic differences between lighting in the foreground, midground, and background.
Perhaps my much more important comment is about not using flash on a hunting raptor / owl. Obviously I took many, many images and that many flashes would have made hunting much more difficult for the Snowy.
Rich
The moon was lovely last night and your photos are fantastic!
Amazing!!!
Outstanding!!!!!
Great shots! Wow!!!
So enjoy your posts, Rich. Keeps me connected to my dear Minnesota, land of my birth, childhood & into my adult years!
Wow! Just Wow!
What an accomplishment! Congrats Rich.