Photo Contest Winner week 8

[STaylor]

Congratulations 'DRHangar' your photo 'Eye contact' has won this weeks photo contest

[PURFLEET]

Well done, wonderfull photo

[LindaCC]

Congrats on a Fabulous photo and win.
LindaCC

[Matt_C]

Perfect shot. Congratuations

Matt

Congratulations Eric on a job well done with a difficult subject. Your series of owl shots have truly been incredible and this one especially is worthy of this weeks POTW winner.
Again my sincere congratulations

Mike (wd8n)

[Al B]

Awesome! Probably the best owl image I have ever viewed.

Well done.

Al B

[Flyball Rebel]

Great image, Eric, Congratulations. Very aptly titled too!.

[tabbyday]

Congrats, a wonderful image.

[padlex]

Fabulous!!! Great detail and composition!

[sandman]

Congrats Eric. Well deserved!

All the best,

jim

[ratcheer]

There was some stiff competition, this week, but this photo really deserved the win. Congratulations!

Tim

[zwdb08]

I was curious what lens did you use ,and what was the setting? what shutter speed? was it on a tripod? Man that is a great picture and owl's are fairly elusive..

[DRHangar]

Thanks everyone for the comments and votes, I'm very happy !

zwdb08 , I'm using a Sigma EX 50-500 HSM with the DRebel, I did use a tripod for these shots, it was taken at ISO 400, 1/1000 sec, and F/7.1 at 500mm.

I got more shots of the owl taken for the past 1 1/2 month right here :

http://www.pbase.com/drhangar/great_gray_owl

Planning to go back this week, while they're still there. Right now I'm concentrating on Owl's in flight shots, no tripod, just handheld.

Cheers and thanks again everyone !

[Scubamom]

Wonderful shot Eric, and a well-deserved win. I found a Birds of Prey Visitor Center a half hour drive from me, and will be taking my camera there when it reopens next month. They do flying demonstrations with the raptors, and I wondered if you have any tips you might pass on about shutter speeds, apertures, etc.
Cheers, Kathy

[DRHangar]

Hi Kathy, for birds in flight, you need shutter speed. Don't know what kind of equipment or lens you have, but here's a few trick :

No need to have a super long zoom, its already hard following them in flight, so 250-300mm should be enough. Try at least 1/1600 to 1/2500 sec shutter speed. That means probably ISO400 and aperture in the F/6.3-F/8 range. As long as its sunny out there, if its cloudy I hope you have a fast lens to go around F/4.

Don't worry much about DOF for birds at 50-100 feet from you flying around, this won't be an issue at 250-300mm. Use AF AI or something similar, the camera needs to be quick on the AF. If you're there for an entire session, vary the settings. You'll find after what was the better shots.

Good luck