July 1, 2013
Great Gray Owls in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

I had a fantastic last day at the great gray owl nest in Yellowstone National Park yesterday. As soon as I got to the nest, I changed the autofocus settings on the Canon EOS 1D X from Case 2 ("Continue to track subjects, ignoring possible obstacles") to Case 5 ("For erratic subjects moving quickly in any direction") to try to get an adult flying off the nest. I had had several opportunities to photograph an adult leaving the nest, but the autofocus couldn't keep up when it was in Case 2.

One of the adults, the mom I think, was perched in a nice location and I was able to get some nice portrait images before she flew off (above) to try hunting in a different area. While she was still pushing off from the perch in this image so that the face is a bit closer than it had been when she was perched, the face is tack sharp so I think the autofocus was able to keep up.

While waiting for something interesting to happen, I noticed that my lens had started to fog up. It had been rather cold and humid the night before, and as the temperature rose, the moisture on the wet vegetation began to evaporate and then condense on my cold lens! While a soft focus effect might be great for glamour photography, it's not what I want for wildlife photography. So, the first thing I did was turn the lens to point towards the sun to try to warm up the front element and evaporate the moisture. That kinda worked, but the process was slow and the condensation formed again very quickly when I turned the lens away from the sun. So I took the camera off the tripod and held it against my body under my fleece to try to warm the whole setup. That worked great! The moisture was gone completely and stayed off while I photographed both adults at the nest!

One of the adults, the dad I think, brought a baby red squirrel to the nest and very quickly the other adult, the mom I think, flew in and took the prey from the first adult. Then the first adult flew off the nest practically straight towards me. I don't know if I wasn't tracking the dipping flight pattern correctly (remember, only the center AF point is active with an f8 lens/extender combination) or if I wasn't on the AF-ON button (for the back button focus), but the face is a bit soft in this frame and gets even more out of focus in subsequent frames.

Which of the two images do you prefer?