During my snowy owl workshop in Canada every winter, there are times when an owl flies quite close to my group. The closer the distance is between the lens and the bird, the faster it appears to move in and out of the frame. Keeping a fast flying owl in the center of the frame, and in focus, isn't easy especially with a telephoto. Of course, I never show you the pictures I miss! With the 100mm focal length (I was using a 100-400mm lens), and with the bird only about 25 feet away, the background was rendered out of focus. Therefore, I took a second photo of the background -- in focus -- and composted that behind the bird to create a unique sense of depth and also to give context to the image. My settings for the owl were 1/3200, f/11, and auto ISO (which turned out to be 6400 due to the low light level). I used a Canon 1Dx Mark II at 14 frames per second.
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