Stop action photography

Using a device that projected a beam in front of the nest of a screech owl, I was able to capture this action shot of the bird bringing food to its chicks. I set up two flash units, and when the owl broke the beam the shutter opened and the flashes fired. The camera and tripod were set up close to the nest aimed at the space in front of it, and I used a wide angle lens (24-105mm set to 35mm) to make sure I captured the entire wingspan as the owl slowed to land. My settings were 1/200, f/16, and 200 ISO. The screech owl is tack sharp because of the brief flash duration -- the actual length of time in milliseconds that the light inside the flash is on during the exposure. I set this up around 10pm and then went to bed. The picture taking during the night was entirely automated. I shot this in the Sonoran Desert south of Tucson, Arizona.