When birds fly, their wings assume all kinds of positions that our unaided eye can't see or appreciate. Only the camera can capture the beauty of flight by freezing a moment in time. This is one of my favorite wing positions of the snowy owls, and this morning we had beautiful low angled sunlight that backlit the bird and made the white feathers seem like they were glowing. Because a telephoto lens has such shallow depth of field, and because I wanted detail in the sky to show, I had to make this composite. After I photographed the owl, I then focused on the sky and took a shot. Then I combined the two images so I had the best of both worlds -- all the detail I could see plus the dramatic backlighting. My settings, as before, were manual exposure mode, 1/3200, f/11, auto ISO (which produced an ISO of 2000 in this case), daylight white balance, and I used a center cluster of 15 autofocus points.
8 Comments
Jan 31, 2018, 12:12:51 PM
Jim - Hi Judy, Thank you for the compliment. Yes, it's available for purchase. What size were you thinking about? Please respond directly to my email address: photos@jimzuckerman.com.
Thank you.
Jim
Jan 31, 2018, 7:48:32 AM
Judy Becker - Hi Jim,
This is a great photo! Would I be able to purchase a print?
Best,
Judy
Jan 31, 2018, 12:42:38 AM
Jim - Hi Bevo, I underexposed the sky by 1 1/3 f/stops.
Jan 30, 2018, 6:02:22 PM
Bevo Dunn - I use manual also. Did you keep the exposure compensation for the sky at neutral or underexposed
thanks,
Jan 26, 2018, 7:54:54 AM
Jim - Bob, I find that when I return to a place a second time, my pictures are always better. It's an interesting phenomenon.
Jan 25, 2018, 11:39:38 PM
Bob - Doing the snowy owl workshop a second time definitely is something that I would like to do at some point. I am not surprised that others have done just that. And our skills and equipment improve making the experience potentially even more productive than the first time.
Jan 24, 2018, 4:38:24 AM
Jim - Several people have repeated this workshop, Bob. With wildlife and birds, every time you revisit a place, the pictures are always so different. Thanks for the compliment.
Jan 24, 2018, 12:20:33 AM
Bob Vestal - Just now was able to review the series from the snowy owl workshop. Fabulous shots of those glorious birds. It is thrilling to see and photograph them. Makes me want to go again!