The Living Forest (33) : Little Owl by night

The Living Forest (33) : Little Owl by night

The Little Owl is a thickset small owl species with remarkable fierce yellow eyes.

Location : Nature reserve ‘Walenhoek’ at Niel (Belgium)

Dutch name : Steenuil
German name : Steinkauz
Latin name : Athene noctua

A big thanks to BRYAN CRUTE for the kindly nomination of this picture.

*****

The making of :

While I was waiting for the best light to capture the Blue Hour shot (see below), I heard some rustle now and then in the shrubbery behind my back.
After a while I could see it was a Little Owl.

When the Blue Hour shot was finished, the owl was still sitting there quietly in the bushes.
It was already pretty dark, but I thought why not give it a try.
So I turned the camera on the tripod around for 180 degrees and pointed my lens at the bird.

It was impossible to shoot the owl without using flash light.
To temper the awful hard light of the flash however, I placed a brownish cellophane in front of the flash and all shots were made with an underexposure of 2 stops.

Next problem was the focusing in this dark light condition.
I had to rely on the help of the red auto focus assistant lamp of the camera and hoping it would function well (it did in 80% of the shots).

The owl was hardly visible in the moonlight, but I started shooting, at random.
A first shot. A second one a bit more to the left. Another one a bit more to the right, then a bit more up and a bit more down.
Sometimes the owl jumped a moment to another bush. So, I had to do it again and again and again……..

And the owl ?
Well, he stayed there all the time and watched the light show.

The shot that I uploaded was the best that came out without disturbing branches in front.