Little owl

[Steve Kaluski]

I'm doing this remotely, as I am still away and just returned back to a nice warm room after a good mornings hike, albeit in pouring rain and dense mountain mist. :bg3:

Just continuing the Little owl project, but this time shot late afternoon as he was running along the branch. Slightly backlit, hence the higher, bright areas. I deliberately wanted to retain space to the left and placed the subject slightly off set to the right.

Steve
Subject: Little owlet eating an earthworm (Athene noctua)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 500f/4 plus 1.4x
Exposure: 1/500s at f/7.1 ISO1600 -0.33 stop compensation Wimberley head/Gitzo tripod

[Joe Senzatimore]

I like the comp. and think it works well here. Love the look down stare and action captured. BG sets it off very well.

[Martin Dunn]

Good composition Steve and wonderful detail on the owl. Background works extremely well to showcase the colours and detail on the owl's plumage.
The raised foot and downward stare suggest that the owl was concentrating on the task in hand and not on you.

[Doug Brown]

The composition works quite well Steve, and you did a good job handling the backlighting. A bit more eye contact would have been nice, and the owl appears to have a slight blueish cast.

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers guys, Doug this owlet was focusing on some 'bugs' within the bark, so the his/her focus was on the forth coming meal I guess and for once I avoided the looking down the barrel :S3:. Slight blue cast, can you pin point it please Doug, always try to avoid it where possible so if I have missed it I can then resolve when I get back.

Not quite as 'jaw dropping' as some of your current species. :bg3:

[Karl Egressy]

Lovely pose, cool image.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pose, comp, backlighting all work very well. Nice BG too! I see a cyan/green cast too...adding about 7-8 points of reds in PS "Color Balance" selectively to the subject seems to do the trick...

[Robert Kimbrell]

Nice intent stare on this guy, I like the walking pose and a great b/g.