"Take off"

[David Salem]

Captured This last spring at a local burrowing owl spot that I have been frequenting. Really fun watching these guys hunt in the morning for insects. They sit on the rocks and scour the terrain looking for movement. For a while the main food item was large green Japanese beetles. I was amazed the first few times I saw them take off and climb up 50-150ft in the air and catch one, then coast down and eat it on the rocks in front of me. This Juvie just saw a beetle and he is off.
I caught this shot at the front of the frame and after two frustrating attempts at adding canvas in the front I gave up. Too much gradient change in the BG. Even trying to remove the branches was looking ugly. Cropped from back and bottom.

1DMKIV---700mm---f5.6---1/3200---ISO400---Car as blind w/BLUBB @8:30am

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. Appreciated.

David


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[John Cooper]

A great flight capture David of the burrowing owl. Very sharp where it counts and the bit of blur in the far wing gives the sense of action. The few branches don't bother me as they appear as part of the environment.

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice flight pose and bg colors, David.

[gail bisson]

This is excellent David.
Re: expanding the canvas- Did you try using content aware fill? I find that sometimes it works very well with this type of BG. Another trick is to use the clone stamp at ~ 50% as it softens the transition edges.
The patch tool would work for the OOF vegetation.
Head is tack sharp and I like the wing blur as well. Beautiful light,
Gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, very well timed for the take off, and a great take off pose with the raised wings. Sharp where it counts, and Im fine with the BG.

What I like to do for take off shots is move my focus point to the opposite side the subject is going to take off. In this, I would have changed to one of the focus points on the right - this gives you more space for the subject to fly into your frame. Furthermore, I see you are at 700mm. I would also take off your TC, and just use 500mm, this will also give you more space to fly into.

Hope that helps. :w3

[Arthur Morris]

Love the sharpness and the low perspective. (How did you get so low?) Love the sharpness, the trailing toes, and the dorsal surface of the far wing. The near-wing position is less than ideal..... EXP right on.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Absolutely stunning. I had some opportunities last winter with one such cooperative bird...so I can understand how hard it is to pull this off. You did great. loved the sharp eye.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice.

Gail, appreciate the info on adding to the canvas. I will have to try the content aware fill this eve and see how it works.
Stuart, Yes I use the same technique of moving the focus point to the farthest opposite side to anticipate the take off. Even at that sometimes they are still at the end of the frame. Especially the sharp ones:)

[David Salem]

Thanks Kaustubh for the nice complement.

Thanks Artie, The low perspective is because I am sitting in my car (with my BLUBB that I love :)) and the rocks that the owls are on are about the height of my truck. Almost eye level or a bit higher. Perfect for portraits too.

[Robert Holguin]

Execellent shot!!!
I love the take off pose, great background. nice light, and terrific pov.
Very well done.