On my walk this morning, I for some reason deemed it unnecessary to bring the camera along; a decision I ended up regretting. We have had Horned Owls around the house since we moved in 7 years ago, and it was still more like farmland than suburbia. With owls being a normally nocturnal bird, it was VERY hard to capture one in a photo (especially with the old Rebel). So when I saw two ravens chasing a larger bird this morning, I naturally assumed they were harassing a hawk. But when I reached the trees they stopped in, I was surprised and disappointed all at once; surprised to see an owl, disappointed I didn’t have my camera. I all but ran back to the house to nab the camera, jumped in the truck and hauled ass the half block to the parking lot for the open space, close to the cottonwoods where the ravens had pinned the owl. I then realized that I had left my flash card in the reader (still full of hunting photos; post will be forthcoming.) Fortunately I had a smaller card left in the truck (a 512MB no less!) which allowed me a total of 12 shots on full RAW resolution (18 MP). Needless too say, I felt like a bumbling moron trying to get the tiny card in the camera while walking, trying to meter the light at the same time, before the owl decided he had enough of the ravens coarse shouts. The moment I raised the camera was when the owl decided to get out of Dodge, and my exposures were not dialed in. While the shots were definitely not what I was hoping for, one actually turned out very cool. More abstract than your traditional bird shot, this image came right out of the camera with no editing or touch up; I love it when that happens!
