Note: If you want to hang any of the below images on your wall, you can purchase a print here. As with my other HawkQuest images, 20% of all proceeds from print sales will be donated to HawkQuest to support their mission of raptor rehabilitation and conservation.
I wrote before about the event I participated in with Mike’s Camera and Hawkquest, a raptor sanctuary in Parker, CO. But in addition to having the z6 there, I also brought the F5 with a roll of Ektachrome 100 slide film (pushed one stop to 200). I finally got that roll back and my – oh – my are there some pretty results. Every shot was taken with the Tamron 70-200/2.8 g2.
As usual with these one-roll posts, you’re going to get the entire roll, not just the best shots. Even the best photographers in the world (I’m not one of them) have garbage shots on their memory cards; most have too many to share. But with a roll of film? That’s a small enough batch of pictures to really be able to share all the results, not just the good ones.
My group started the day off with the Eurasian Eagle Owl. He was in harsh, contrasty light. But honestly, I was also underexposing. It was right after him I remembered the last roll and the fact that I don’t trust the matrix metering on the F5 and made the switch to spot metering. Excuses, excuses.
Next up was the Spectacled Owl. This particular spectacled owl had very large pupils, giving it an almost eerie looking pair of empty eyes that very easily got lost in the dark brown feathers about its head. I really love the last shot in this series; the way the Ektachrome rendered the background is just absolutely magical.
The long-eared owl was my favorite by far of the day. The volunteer from HawkQuest found a perfect spot in which to let it hang out. While I like the contrasty spotlight images near the top of this set, it’s the last one that is my favorite of the day, and is likely one I’ll be getting printed and hang in the living room. I have a bunch of others from that angle from the z6, but this green tinted ektachrome version is far more magical to me than the digital versions.
These barn owl photos would all be perfectly acceptable if I had nailed focus; I didn’t. The contrasty nature of the pushed film made for some very dramatic lighting, but I botched it with the focus.
I made a mistake with the great horned owls of listening to our group leader instead of paying attention to my shutter count. I knew there were going to be six species of owl, I knew this was the 5th my group had gotten to, but when the leader accidentally said this was the last set, I went and blew the rest of my roll without thinking. Still, it was a good pair to blow some film on. Everybody in the group went to the opposite side so that the sun was behind them and lighting the birds. I took a few shots on the z6 from that angle; they weren’t good. Seeing immediately the rim light that the sun provided, the way the leaves in the background were lit up, and the even lighting on the owls’ faces when shooting on the shadow side, I knew it was where I wanted to be. No regrets.
The Zootographer 