I took these after 5 tonight. It was cloudy and started raining after I left, so it was dark. The first one is short eared-owl on a post that is cropped a lot.
This second picture was lightened a lot, but not cropped as much as the first picture. It landed on a post very close to where we could stand. This is the first year I have seen the short-eared owls land on posts.
Although the lighting is bad, I still enjoyed seeing them closer than I ever have before. I just wish they would come that close with better lighting conditions.
Sharon's Iconic Travel Photography Blog 
Beautiful shots, Sharon. I don’t think the lighting or distance takes anything away from them. Nice work.
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I had flight shots, but they are grainy and hard to make less so. When they are on the posts at least I can bring the shutter speed down to 1/320, 1/200 or slightly less. Still had higher ISO’s then I wanted. It flew very close to me tonight. Just wish they would do that when it was lighter. I am just happy to see them. You can’t get everything.
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You’re right, we can’t get everything. But you’ve made the most of what you have, and the result is very nice IMHO. The flight shots of owls you posted earlier looked really nice to me, too. There’s a beautiful silvery light on all of these. 🙂
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Thanks! Almost blueish on the one photo.
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I had exactly the same thoughts. Simply wonderful.
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Thanks! Here’s hoping for more opportunities with more light.
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Whoo. Whoosh.
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Well, maybe they want you to work a little bit in appreciation for some cooperation. SMILE….. Nice images, Sharon. And yeah, closer is always better. Even with some of the newer super tele camera lenses the f-stops are still pretty high.
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Ha! They definitely like less people there. Weekends are not a good time to see them. I can’t shell out for the ones with lower F stop numbers. The people with those lens are able to stay longer.
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Nice. The blue light makes it more interesting!
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Thanks! Even though it was cloudy there are still some interesting colour effects.
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I think these look great!
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Thanks! Not bad even though the light was not great. Still hoping to see what I saw last night in better light. They were very close last night.
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Glorious pictures.
Gwen.
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Glorious birds!
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Super captures! The SEOs here just tend to sit on the ground. I think the lighting gives the images a nice feel and as for cropping? So what we all do it, even the ‘pros’.
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We would rarely see them if they only sat on the ground. The grass is taller than me in much of the location. Mostly they come out and fly right at sunset or when it is starting to get dark. Last night they flew close to me but the pictures it was blurred in the photo. I think the autofocus could not capture it when it was so dark. They landed on many things close to where people were. They don’t do that all the time but many times it’s just too dark.
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Always a pain when the light’s bad but these are great shots, very atmospheric and I’m slightly jealous!
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I have a friend who was lucky enough to get a close oncoming shot with a moody ,cloudy background. I do feel lucky.
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