Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Thursday 18 October 2012

Owl flight sequence.

Last weekend when I visited the Peak District the owls showed well at one of my known sites. They stayed quite distant which meant the images weren't of great quality. However, I did manage to rattle off four consecutive shots when one of the owls took off from a drystone wall. Settings at the time were; 300mm, ISO 400, F4 and 1/4000 second shutter speed.
 
Because I haven't been out recently and consequently have nothing new to post I thought I'd have a play around with the four images to see what was possible? Now I am a self taught novice when it comes to editing images but with the use of my photo editing software even I managed to overlay all the images together to produce this cloned  "take off" sequence.

Click on image for larger version.

 
Manipulation to this extent this is something I have not done before and probably won't do again, (I'm not out to con anyone), but it just goes to show what is possible..........good or bad?

5 comments:

  1. It's brilliant mate. I love these type of images and it's very artistic. I'd encourage you do have another go in the future because this isn't manipulation to 'con', rather it is manipulation for the sake of art. Superb.

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  2. 100% agree with Christian, I think when it comes to images like this it's obviously a composition of several images, also sometimes cloning things out of an image can be important eg dust spots, an object that might lead the viewer to i.d. a sensitive site etc. I'm not in favour of cloning items into a picture but if the photographer discloses the fact then in my opinion it's not a "con". It's something photographers have done since the invention of the camera, to create "arty images"
    I like this composition Paul, well done

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  3. You are awesome! Novice? I don't think so. These are brilliant images of a magnificent creature taking off. Nicely done.

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  4. Hello Paul,

    I've just come across your blog searching for reference material of owls for my drawing work. I write a blog about living on Dartmoor which I initially started to try and publicise my drawings. It has rather taken over and I seem to spend more time writing and editing photos than actually doing any artwork! Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have at last sold a print and have been asked by the buyer to do an owl or two. My camera only has a 6x zoom and is hopeless for birds so I was wondering if you would consider letting me use some of your work? I would send you a copy of any prints of course....if you liked them that is!

    You can either contact me through the blog at dartmoorramblings.blogspot.co.uk or at emparko@gmail.com. Your pictures are absolutely stunning and there are definitely ones I could use.....

    Many thanks for reading this and I'll hope to hear from you sometime.

    Very best wishes,

    Em

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