Great Horned Owl

[Alison McCoy]

I took this photo of a Great Horned Owl this morning around 8:00. Wandering through a local park looking for songbirds, I heard this owl hooting and was able to track him/her down getting ready to sleep in a cottonwood.

Camera 7D
Sigma 400mm with 2x TC
ISO 500
Handheld


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[Randy Stout]

Alison:

Always fun to get a nice surprise visitor.

You did a good job holding that rig steady.

The image is underexposed as posted, and would present better with increased exposure. You may need to do a little dodging of the sky areas when you bring it up, but the bird will show much better.

Perhaps your choice of exposure was a creative choice to give a sense of him hiding in the shadows, with just the bit of light striking him, but I would at least try bringing up the exposure some.

Cheers

Randy

PS: I had a second, and did a very quick touch up, selectively brought up the exposure on the bird, dodged some of the lighter areas. You can do a much better job on the original. I still left it a bit dark to hopefully maintain the original feel.

[Alison McCoy]

Thanks Randy. I appreciate the comments and critique. I will try making some of the adjustments you mentioned. I sat on the ground and braced against a log with the camera and lens on my knees. Just learning the tricks of manual focus.

[Marina Scarr]

Lucky you to find this beauty on your morning walk. Randy made a good point on the exposure of the bird. I would run a little noise reduction (NR) on the background (BG) only b/c I am seeing noise esp on the upper right side.

Looking forward to seeing more of your images!

[Shawn Zierman]

Love the eye contact...really makes the steep shooting angle work better.
I also like the sqarish crop. Good idea regarding some selective NR.
Looks like a hefty crop to me, as fine detail seems scant sketchy.....?

[Bill Jobes]

I absolutely love this one, Alison !