Photographing Barn Owls

One of my photographic goals this year is to get better pictures of barn owls. Not that I haven't been pleased with some of the shots I got in 2009, but I know I can do better. Here's some of my favourite photos of barn owls so far:



















If you like them, there's more owl photographs on my Flickr here.

Whilst I am pleased with the compostion and lighting of most of these, they are taken at the limits of the equipment I have available. I couldn't get much closer than about 30m to the birds most of the time and my longest autofocusing lens is my Canon 100-400mm IS on my Canon 40d. This means cropping is almost inevitable and the results don't always look pretty due to being at ISO 3200 for most of them! They're fine for Flickr, but I don't like putting work on my website unless I'm confident that it can be printed large.

This year I want photos of barn owls that are clearer, closer and better composed. Whilst being full frame is a bit of a handicap in terms of reach, I'm hoping the superior ISO abilities of my Canon 5d mkii will be a help. I'm making using of camouflage as well, in addition to moving closer to where they hunt on the other side of the river. If all else fails I might just start shooting more owls like this one below as they're a lot easier! In the mean time if anybody has got a 500/600mm f4 lens and a Canon 1d series camera they'd like to give away then please get in touch!