Balancing Act - Barred Owlet

[Marina Scarr]

This barred owlet slowly gained courage and actually branched the next morning. Its (probably older) sibling had fallen out of the tree a couple of days earlier, spent the night in the brush and climbed up a palm and was being fed regularly by the adults. I will post images of the actual branching next which was actually amazing to watch and capture.


Canon 1D4, Canon 500 & 2.0 @ 1,000mm
F10, 1/125sec, ISO 2500, manual mode,
Canon 540EZ flash, probably manual settings
Feisol tripod, Jobu head

[Colin Driscoll]

Top shot and lovely light. The wings hardly look well enough developed for it fly.

[Mike Poole]

Lovely image of something rarely seen. Excellent work with the flash - I'd never had known unless you'd mentioned it.

Mike

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot,I think I would be tempted to lift the darker tones a little bit, I appreciate the exposure may have proven tricky.

[Ross Taylor]

Hi Marina,

Love how the claws are prominent. They certainly look large for the size of the owlet. Nice to have the raised wings and a clear BG also.

I am with Jonathan, the photo strikes me as a bit dark (or perhaps just the bird). A little more room on the sides to clear the wings may be a consideration also.

TFS,
Ross

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Marina, always a sucker for owlets, looks like this one is just flexing and getting used to having wings. Perhaps if you have it, then a little more to the right to look into?? The image looks good based on the techs, especially pushing the MKIV and if it's the old 500 & 2x. I feel there is more you can bring out of the subject, easing off the Blacks & Contrast, then using some simple Channels & Curves with layers to control the adjustments, the finer detail then comes through IMHO. Even just upping the Exp by 0.10 helps. Based on ISO2500 & MKIV how far you apply NR is personal choice though.

Not sure if this helps to illustrate my points? BTW was this with Dan, just saw one of his too.

TFS
Steve

[gail bisson]

The BG and the perch are awesome as is the wing stretch.
I like your comp as it really pulls the eye into the bird and those wonderful talons.
I am not loving the flashed catchlight in the eye but I don't know how you could fix that.
Gail

[David Salem]

Love the wing position and the solid stare. Nice look at the feet too and I think that green BG really highlights the owl well. The tight comp looks nice to me. Steve's re-post adds some more pop to the face and eyes. Nice one Marina!

[Robert Kimbrell]

Love the scene Marina. A really unique and pleasing wing position here. Good job with the flash, I like the added light in the repost.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marina, love the concentrated stare, together with the raided wings. Great that you have captured the Owlet against a clean BG, and I also like how the Owlet managed to 'perch' end of the branch/tree trunk.

[Marina Scarr]

Thank you so much for all of the comments, critiques and RP. This image was actually taken quite late in the evening so there was no way around using flash. While I like the lighter version that Steve posted, I don't believe that it's representative of the owlet at this age. The RP depicts the owlet with whiter plumage than it actually has. At this age, the plumage has more grey than white, unlike during the first 12 days of life.

[Doug Brown]

That nest was a tough shoot, and I think you did well balancing your ambient exposure and fill flash. Love that 'I'm getting ready to start flying really soon' pose.

[arash_hazeghi]

very cute Marina, love the little owlet

[Gerald Gardebled]

Owls shots are my favorite. Nice one!