Advan's Raptor Photography

papilio

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Aside from the awesome subjects, it's pretty amazing how you're getting the kind of contrast and color in these images under what I'd guess are often pretty flat lighting conditions. Gorgeous! :)

If you're still getting shots like this even close to OOC I quit.
 

The Snark

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This is some kind of demented masochism for me. Go on my bike ride to relax. Camera dangling around my neck starts to chaff. Doing so much rubber necking I almost drive off the road several times. It's somewhere in Murphy's laws. If I'm packing a camera all wildlife move to a different country.
3 days ago. A water buffalo in a scenic field with a dark green background. Three strokes are perched on it's back having a coffee klatch. A tiny baby buffalo is nursing on it's mom. Slowly slowly, stop bike. Raise camera, turn on, swivel, raise camera. And that's their cue. In the space of time to I get my eye in the view finder all three birds take flight and the baby strolls away.
By the time I get home from my relaxing bike ride - photo safaris I'm in a state of acute hypertension.

Maybe start a GoFundMe to finance Advan's kidnapping and shipping over here to show me how it's done. I'll take shots of him as he does it. Safe bet he won't fly off.
 
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advan

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Aside from the awesome subjects, it's pretty amazing how you're getting the kind of contrast and color in these images under what I'd guess are often pretty flat lighting conditions. Gorgeous! :)

If you're still getting shots like this even close to OOC I quit.
Haha. Actually I prefer overcast with these. The trick is trying to get them without a overexposed sky. Pick one or two and I'll email you the untouched jpegs if you're that curious. :)

This is some kind of demented masochism for me. Go on my bike ride to relax. Camera dangling around my neck starts to chaff. Doing so much rubber necking I almost drive off the road several times. It's somewhere in Murphy's laws. If I'm packing a camera all wildlife move to a different country.
3 days ago. A water buffalo in a scenic field with a dark green background. Three strokes are perched on it's back having a coffee klatch. A tiny baby buffalo is nursing on it's mom. Slowly slowly, stop bike. Raise camera, turn on, swivel, raise camera. And that's their cue. In the space of time to I get my eye in the view finder all three birds take flight and the baby strolls away.
By the time I get home from my relaxing bike ride - photo safaris I'm in a state of acute hypertension.

Maybe start a GoFundMe to finance Advan's kidnapping and shipping over here to show me how it's done. I'll take shots of him as he does it. Safe bet he won't fly off.
If I had a nickel for every time I had the shutter half way pressed and the subject flew off, I wouldn't need a GoFundMe. I wouldn't be opposed though, would have to split the raptoring with some spider hunts though. ;)

Monday's after work hike on Pike Island had good results.

GHO in the sun.






We found a pair of Barred Owls at the end of the hike. After a bit, we watched them tag team hunt a squirrel. We watched for about ten minutes but left before they caught it.












......and a bonus male GHO from last week.
 

boina

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I just found this thread (procrastinating at work...) and I'm blown away. OMG, these pictures are absolutely gorgous!!!
 

ChickenTaco

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At our old house just out of town we had tons of GH owls! But all our trees were so tall that pics were a pain! The coopers hawk, martins and swallows (we had 4 types) were great though! Flew circles around our house ;D
 

Nephila Edulis

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Absolutely stunning! I'd try and take pics of eagles but I have no idea where they'd stop and sit still for a photo. There is a nest in keilor that I know of though. Other than that there's really just tawny frogmouths around. Sometimes if I'm lucky I'll spot a falcon in the city flying low, but that's about it
 

advan

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Been awhile. Now that it is winter I switch my focus from jumping spiders to raptors.

After a few hours of driving back roads looking for snowy owls and coming up short last weekend, we made the last minute decision to make a two hour detour north to St. Louis County. We only had about 45 minutes of light when we arrived but it was worth it. We also ran into a spider friend Brad. It's always nice to run into friends, hours away from home.

Great Grey Owl








A few of the second one we found hunting at dusk.


 
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cold blood

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Been awhile. Now that it is winter I switch my focus from jumping spiders to raptors.

After a few hours of driving back roads looking for snowy owls and coming up short last weekend, we made the last minute decision to make a two hour detour north to St. Louis County. We only had about 45 minutes of light when we arrived but it was worth it. We also ran into a spider friend Brad. It's always nice to run into friends, hours away from home.

Great Grey Owl








A few of the second one we found hunting at dusk.


Those pics are magnificent. I would love to have a blow up of that 4th pic. Ridiculous pics...I see owls fairly often here, but I almost never get a good look at them for long enough to even get a quick pic on my phone.
 

viper69

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I've been trying to branch out of macro photography
Where's the dedication... :troll:

I've driven and hiked countless miles coming back without any thing
I know this feeling all too well for some landscape photography. I was recently on the coast and had left my camera home by ACCIDENT, 300 miles away, saw one of the best sunsets in a while, nothing but a camera "phone" with me.



These are great pics Advan. I'm glad you are finding joy in a new area. I've only seen owls and hawks flying haha. Never seen them sitting still unfortunately, nor have I seen an eagle in the wild ever. Truly gorgeous images.
 

crlovel

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Advan, what setup are you using? And are you shooting RAW files and touching up/sharpening with software?

Absolutely beautiful pictures.
 

advan

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Those pics are magnificent. I would love to have a blow up of that 4th pic. Ridiculous pics...I see owls fairly often here, but I almost never get a good look at them for long enough to even get a quick pic on my phone.
Thanks man! it takes a lot of time to find them during the day. That's half the fun. Last year the gf and I come up with a game with points.

Where's the dedication... :troll:



I know this feeling all too well for some landscape photography. I was recently on the coast and had left my camera home by ACCIDENT, 300 miles away, saw one of the best sunsets in a while, nothing but a camera "phone" with me.



These are great pics Advan. I'm glad you are finding joy in a new area. I've only seen owls and hawks flying haha. Never seen them sitting still unfortunately, nor have I seen an eagle in the wild ever. Truly gorgeous images.
I am dedicated to Salti's during the summer, even got a bad case of poison ivy last summer catching one. ;) I still need to create a thread of all the Salti shots I got last year. That's crazy you've never seen a baldy, they are dime a dozen up here.

Advan, what setup are you using? And are you shooting RAW files and touching up/sharpening with software?

Absolutely beautiful pictures.
I'm using a Nikon D7100 with the Nikon 200-500mm f5.6 now. Before I was shooting the Nikon 300mm f4 with a 1.4 teleconverter before I sold that to Jacobi to fund the 200-500mm. I shoot in raw, import them into Nikon ViewNX and convert them to JPEG. I use Lightroom to reduce noise, do some touch ups and cropping. Owls are always hard do to lighting restrictions, the GGOs love to hunt of grey overcast days. You always have to crank up ISO to get the SS up to get usable shots. If you are curious about EXIF data, I have it enabled on my Flickr so you can see the settings for each shot. :) https://www.flickr.com/photos/76845739@N03/

Since the last post we've made it up to the Bog twice and did a local search for some owls.


12.16.2017 Sax Zim Bog trip.

Northern Hawk Owl






Great Grey Owl









1.7.2018 Airport and Pike Island hike.

We stopped by the Minneapolis airport to hopefully see one of the Snowy Owls that have been hanging around. We did find one that was far away. Hopefully I'll get some better opportunities soon!

Snowy Owl


After the airport we went to Fort Snelling State Park to hike Pike's Island to get out because it was in the 20's and nice compared to the sub-zero temps we had been dealing with lately. April found a GHO hiding at the end of the island.

Great Horned Owl




1.14.2018 Sax Zim Bog trip.

We went up to the bog last Sunday and brought a friend to have her see her first NHO and GGO's. We found 3 GGO's(one on the highway before we got to the bog) and one NHO.

Northern Hawk Owl


Great Grey Owl












That's it for now. Debating on heading up north this weekend to try and find the elusive Boreal Owls people have been finding. Thanks for looking! -Chad
 

viper69

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I still need to create a thread of all the Salti shots I got last year
Can't wait to see those! My favorite true spider group out there. If they were the size of a large tarantula, I'd get one provided I could give them a good amount of space for them to thrive. I know papilio had the large species, and those are huge for spiders.
 

Storm76

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Ah, Chad. I see you're still posting those mind-boggling, blowing away pictures of yours! Wonderful to look it. Thank you for posting them! Also, hi Michael! :D
 

papilio

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Jan! :D What a very pleasant surprise, and thanks for the shout out ... I do hope you're doing well!

Chad, looking back just now over these images and from the perspective of quite some time having passed, I'm thinking that these may be even more remarkable than your spider photos. :)
 

Storm76

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Still kicking. Some changes in my private life, but still around of course. Not as active, but I'll try. Hope you guys are all well, too.
 

NathanB

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Great Photos, search for Morten Hilmer on YouTube, he has very good videos. Have you ever tried sitting in a hide with bait in front of the hide (bait can be like a dead rabbit or something) you can get stunning photos that way! 👍
 
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