Barred Owl, pushing it!

[Michael Liskay]

Had never seen a Barred Owl previously so headed over to Reed College in Portland, OR., with a friend. As it was getting dark and we were ready to call it quits, there was this owl about 10 ft off the trail. I cranked up the ISO and took about a dozen handheld shots with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 II with the 300mm f/4 lens. I was shooting at ~ 1/6 of a second. Amazingly I got some decent shots that of course required some noise reduction (Topaz Studio's A1 Clear). I am not promoting in a commercial sense but this app is great for cleaning up images especially of wildlife shot in challenging light.

 

[AlanLichty]

You did get some nice shots of that owl - especially the first image in the set.

AI Clear can do some amazing stuff depending on the original. I have seen some curious artifacts on some images and great results on the next one but have yet to come up with a good way to identify which images are going to go wonky when I use it. The last image in your set is displaying some artifacts around the edges of the owl that might be coming from AI Clear.

 

[Anatoly]

Nice shots!
To get it at 300mm- 1/6 sec, you must have a very strong grip!
Did you use any camers handle fo a better grip?

 

[Ben Egbert]

Those first two are amazing for the conditions, like Alan, I see artifacts in the last image.

 

[Michael Liskay]

Yup, that last image has some weird stuff going on!!! Next time I will find that Owl before it gets so dark!!

PS thanks to both of you for noticing!

 

[JimFox]

How awesome that you were able to capture this owl Michael! I know I would be excited about that too!

I like all 3 shots, with maybe #2 my favorite.

 

[Michael Liskay]

Nice shots!
To get it at 300mm- 1/6 sec, you must have a very strong grip!
Did you use any camers handle fo a better grip?

No, I did not use a camera grip. I had my tripod with me but shooting positions were limited. PS the IS on this camera.lens combo is 5 f stops which definitely helps!

 

[Eric Gofreed]

Had never seen a Barred Owl previously so headed over to Reed College in Portland, OR., with a friend. As it was getting dark and we were ready to call it quits, there was this owl about 10 ft off the trail. I cranked up the ISO and took about a dozen handheld shots with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 II with the 300mm f/4 lens. I was shooting at ~ 1/6 of a second. Amazingly I got some decent shots that of course required some noise reduction (Topaz Studio's A1 Clear). I am not promoting in a commercial sense but this app is great for cleaning up images especially of wildlife shot in challenging light.

View attachment 20502


View attachment 20503


View attachment 20504

excellent photography and birding, Michael. A brown-eyed beauty