I've got an initial version of my April 8th total solar eclipse images here. I wrote some python code to align and stack a few exposures of the totality, to reduce noise. I'll make a separate blog post with full-size eclipse images and more processing details.

More recently, I was finally able to photograph a target owl! It was a Western Screech-Owl. My fourth visit to this location finally paid off: I went just before sunset, in the rain, and set up my camera on a tripod there. I experimented with shutter speeds and found that 1/2 second exposures around ISO 2000 worked fine. I also found that using a remote trigger (intervalometer) and turning off image stabilization on the lens were necessary for sharp images at 1/2 second. I was ready and took a few shots at intervals when it finally took a peek out of the nest hole right around sunset. I was really surprised at how still the owl was sitting — the photos were pretty sharp with 1/2 second exposures.

After taking a look around for a few minutes, the owl disappeared back down into its hole. Since it didn't fly off to hunt, and it was starting to get really dark, I called it a night at that point.

These photos are © 2024 Phil Thompson, all rights reserved.

My "birds in review" collages can be found here.