Straight off the post

[dennis greenwood]

No bait or audio was used in order to get this shot ,this is one of the males fixed favourite perches ,its one I have always left in situ and never removed to replace with any other ,a totally natural perch for the bird(as you can see with the poo marks ).As there was no guarantee that the bird would land at the time I needed in order for the light and a suitable shutter speed I just gambled and set up a hide ,if the bird landed behind me I would have had to give up on the chance of shots as I would have had to stay in the hide until the bird left on its own free will,this I had to on quite a few occasions ,however on this occasion he landed and decided to fly my way when he flew off ...canon 1d mkiv 300mm f4 iso 800 +1/3 ev 1/1600 sec 157909

[gail bisson]

Beautiful light and great BG.
Love your field craft to get this.
Bird is sharp where it needs to be.
I would lighten the shadow on the perch- my eye keeps going there instead of focusing on the bird.I am OK with the amount of wing blur
but would have preferred a bit more SS to get a bit less blur. Not a deal breaker though,
Gail

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Dennis,
Nice job in capturing this fine image. I love the sharpness on the face which concentrates my attention. I am fine with the wing blur. Nicely done.
Allen

[Bill Dix]

Very nice takeoff, terrific stare, lovely bg. Ditto Gail's observations.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice take off shot, sharp head and eyes, well done.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Dennis, great field craft. Gail gave you good suggestions regarding the perch. I think it's amazing that you could get sharp image on the head with the owl flying at you, but I saw you were already at F4. I'd suggest trying to crop tighter at the bottom to reduce the effect of the perch. Loi