Standing Tall

[Loi Nguyen]

Seeing Dennis's Little Owl image motivated me to post this one taken last month at Salton Sea, California. We call them Burrowing Owl here in the US.

I got to the owl location in the cover of darkness and lied flat on the ground waiting for the owls. They are fairly tolerant of people as this is a fairly well known location, but still I didn't want to put any stress on the owls. This image was taken shortly after sunrise.

5D3
500f4 II
1/1600
f5.6
ISO-1600
Bean bag on the ground

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Randy Stout]

Loi:

Great point of view from your bean bag. Sharp, nice soft early light.

If this was shot as a horizontal, and you have more canvas, I might move him just slightly off center to the right.

If you had some time to work him, I might have tried for more DOF by trading shutter speed for a smaller aperture.

Cheers

Randy

[Ian Wilson]

Great POV, killer background, lovely eye contact. I am finding the abrupt transition from oof foreground to the in-focus ground a bit of a distraction. A bit more DOF has already been mentioned. Regards, Ian.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, a hint more DoF agreed, plus if you had a fraction more elevation you would still have some 'mush' in the FG, but you will have seen the feet/talons which are gorgeous. The mush is a tad distracting as presented, sometimes not seen/noticed when out in the field. If you could obtain a bit more tone in the chest plumage this would add to definition and detail, creating more 'form' within the body.

TFS
Steve

[gail bisson]

The light and the BG are wonderful.
Agree with Steve about getting a little higher and more DOF.
Still a lovely image! Well done,
Gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Loi, getting down and dirty always works well, although there is a fine line between how low, as a few inches higher would have been spot on to show the feet clearly - but I would take this any day. Love the light and warm colours, head turn, and the two tone BG.

[Mike Poole]

Looks like I've been beaten by others in posting my only criticism - I too would have tried to get an inch or 2 higher. Isn't hindsight wonderful!

Other than that, it's a lovely shot in great light, look forward to seeing more

Mike

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, agreed with your comment. next time, F8 and a little higher for sure. Thank you. Loi

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good critiques by the above commentors, and I agree. I love the light and BG.

[Lorant Voros]

Good comments indeed; magic light and nice low angle here. Well done.

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful morning light and great low angle, if perhaps an inch too low. Looks like you were the one in the burrow. Nicely done.

[Rachel Hollander]

HI Loi - Beautiful morning light and low pov. Just a bit too low as said above. Agree with the other suggestions too but still a nice image.

TFS,
Rachel

[David Salem]

Nice shot Loi. I like the colorful morning light, the pose, the colors and the details in this one. Nice looking BG and I like that the eye is fully lit. Not captured as often as people might think. Well done

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the pose and details, it's a bit dark as posted and I'd move him a bit to the right off the center

TFS

[Loi Nguyen]

I like the pose and details, it's a bit dark as posted and I'd move him a bit to the right off the center

TFS

You are right Arash. I moved the bird to the right a hair and moved in the white in Levels to where it just about to touch the highlights.

Thank you everyone. I printed 12X16 (a little bigger than life size) and am quite happy with the result. Next time I will try to remember to have complete feet and shoot at F8 or F11 as I had the SS.

Loi