Cluttered, Dull, Dreary Grays and Browns, Too High, and Relatively Boring/My First Screech Owl: the Eyes Have It!

What’s Up?

I walked Nickerson Beach and peeked in at West End, Jones Beach. There were no Snowy Owl anywhere. Then I headed to Massapequa Park in Nassau County on Long Island to look for the Screech Owl. That worked out a bit better.

Today in Monday 29 November 2021. It is cold and cloudy. I am headed to Westhampton to look for another Snowy Owl. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare and makes 22 consecutive days with a new one.

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Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

Image #1: Photo Mechanic screen capture for the gray morph Eastern Screech Owl in nest hole image

The Exposure

Photo Mechanic shows the sky completely blown out. RawDigger showed 9,000,000 OvExp pixels. Yet, I considered this a perfect exposure. Any?

This image was created on 28 November 2021 at Massapequa Park on Long Island. While standing at full height plus a bit more, I used the no-longer available GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted-Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera (Body Only). ISO 2000. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/125 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 1:54pm on a very cloudy day. Tracking: Flexible Spot AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger higher-res version. Image #1A: gray morph Eastern Screech Owl in nest hole

Cluttered, Dull, Dreary Grays and Browns, Too High, and Relatively Boring

In short, it was a difficult situation. The nest hole was about 60 feet up the tree. There was no light. The owl had its eyes closed 99.9% of the time. Working with the 2X TC meant a high ISO along with low shutter speeds. When a squirrel ran through the leaves at my feet, the owl looked down and opened its eyes ever-so-briefly.

The problem was that the yellow irises appeared totally gray both in the raw file and the converted TIFF. I relied on various Eye Doctor techniques to yellow them up, but it took me a long time as initially, were too orange. Several times I went back and started from scratch.

Note also that I eliminated the large branch in the upper right corner and that I chose to leave the single, out-of-focus scraggly twig in the lower left corner. Would you have removed the latter?

I fully realize that the optimized image will not win any contests. But it is my first-ever screech owl, so I processed with with extreme care.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II). You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a PayPal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. Be sure to specify Digital Basics II.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

The Eye Doctor and clean-up techniques mentioned above and tons more great Photoshop tips and techniques — along with all of my personalized Keyboard Shortcuts — are covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. While the new e-Guide reflects my MacBook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow, folks using a PC and/or BreezeBrowser will also benefit greatly by studying the material on DB II. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here. Note: all of the videos are now priced at an amazingly low $5.00 each.

You can learn how and why I converted all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here. More recently, I became proficient at converting my Nikon RAW (NEF) files in Adobe Camera Raw. About two years ago I began converting my Nikon and Sony RAW files in Capture One Pro 12 and continue to do so today.

You can learn more about Capture One in the Capture One Pro 12 Simplified MP4 Video here. The next step would be to get a copy of Arash Hazeghi’s “The Nikon Photographers’ Guide to Phase One Capture One Pro e-Guide” in the blog post here.

You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.