"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
I’ve been hunting and trying to photograph Short-eared Owls in Lincoln County, MO for nearly 10 years with mixed success. The past three years or so have been particularly challenging with lower numbers than typical, often without seeing a single owl on several outings. We hypothesize that a year or two of bad flooding in these areas adjacent to the Mississippi River have caused dramatic declines in the small rodents that these and other birds of prey need in order to spend their winters here.
Whatever the reasons, this winter (2021/2022) we are seeing incredible numbers of these long-winged beauties. Although primarily nocturnal, this species also exhibits diurnal and crepuscular habits and this is another area where we have been fortunate. I have spent close to 25 afternoons and evenings with these birds over the past six weeks, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. On most of these days at least one or two owls were seen flying with the sun still well into the sky. This makes for excellent opportunities for observing their behaviors and working on better strategies to get the meaningful photographs we are after.
I have probably kept way too many photographs that will require purchasing new external drives much sooner than I anticipated and I have probably processed too many as well. Still, I plan on sharing many of these here over the course of the next several weeks. Hell, the season isn’t over. I’ll probably try for more before they head back to the great north for the breeding season.
Short-eared Owl Image made with Canon 7d mkii, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens and Canon Extender EF 2X III
I don’t usually like to discuss gear on this blog, but once in a while I think there are some things new or interesting enough to talk about, particularly when I think they may be critical for producing the best possible results. I have been wanting to test and compare the 2 latest Canon teleconverters (Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, Canon Extender EF 2X III) in a head to head test for sometime and this past weekend found me with an opportunity to do so. To be clear, this was not the optimal situation to make this test. The light was poor and the subject was probably too far away and not covering enough pixels to make a relevant comparison. But, I thought I’d give it a try.
These tests were setup as equally, but not scientifically, as possible. For these first two images, I processed as normal and tried my best to be equal in all capture and processing steps. I cropped to make the bird approximately the same size in both images, so obviously, the photo made with the 1.4X tc was enlarged more than the one made with the 2X tc. I then resized each to make them 1000 pixels on the horizontal. The purpose here was to see if there is a discernible difference in sharpness and image quality between the two. The 2X tc often gets poor reviews, but just as often gets raves by those who claim to know what they’re doing. Many claim that the better results are made by using a 1.4X tc, or native lens and cropping in post to obtain better results than those obtained by using the 2X tc for an optical zoom.
Short-eared Owl Image made with Canon 7d mkii, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens and Canon Extender EF 1.4X III
Open the two images above in separate tabs to see a roughly equal comparison. In my opinion, I was pretty pleased with the results of the 2X tc in sub-optimal conditions. Both photos are fine for sharing on the web, although the IQ would limit print size. Like I said, the conditions were poor and the bird at a great distance. However, I think I would give a slight edge to the photo made with the 2X converter. This edge might just as well be due to differences in how I processed or with changing conditions within the few minutes between captured images.
Let’s look next at the “100% crops” of both photos. This simply means that these photos were both cropped at the same dimensions (4″ x 6″) and not resized. These examples were NOT sharpened.
Focal length equivalent = 500 x 1.6 x 2.0 = 1,600mm
Focal length equivalent = 500 x 1.6 x 1.4 = 1,120mm
Again, with this comparison, I find the two very close. Either one would work well enough, but if your goal was to maximize print/display size, I would probably go with the 2X tc. I guess this has surprised me a bit. I was expecting that, under these sub-optimal conditions, the 2x tc would fall behind the supposedly sharper combination of the 500mm + 1.4X tc.
What do you think? Did I make any major blunders in my comparison or analysis? Please let me know. I do hope to make this comparison again under perfect light and optimally placed subject sometime in the future.
For the first time since junior high I did not watch a single down or minute of the NFL this season and I couldn’t be happier for it. Rape my town three times, NFL – shame on you. I’ve been pleased to get those precious free minutes back for my Sundays, several of which I found I could spend not dreading the upcoming workweek.
Short-eared Owl
When the forecast showed a near perfect meteorological condition for shooting the Short-eared Owls of BK Leach, I figured this could be promising. While most other naked apes with functioning vision would be in front of the picture box and ingesting mass quantities of wings and beer, I would enjoy the warm and lightly breezy evening in my own kind of chair with friends of a different sort.
Short-eared Owl
Of course there is never a sure thing. Often, when I have expected the best due to light and temperature, the owls don’t show where I set myself. On this particular day, all conditions came together and I had a super time.
Short-eared Owl
I want to give huge thanks for my lovely and talented wife, Sarah, for the special help she gave me this season in getting my best to date SEOW in flight shots.
Short-eared Owl
A perfect day ended in the perfect way – with a great sunset on the Lincoln Hills.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 