Florida Burrowing Owls

[Joseph Przybyla]

I thought since Steve and Dennis posted images of the Little Owl I would post the Florida Burrowing Owl so that those interested could see the differences. Both owls belong to the Group Athene, both are about 9 inches tall (23 cm). The Little Owl appears to have shorter legs and nests in cavities in trees and nest boxes. The Florida Burrowing Owl digs a burrow and nests underground. In the image I posted the female is on the viewers left, the male on the right. The male is slightly lighter colored than the female because it spends more time in the sun while the female is in the burrow. Sun in Florida bleaches everything, even feathers of birds. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/2000 /5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 360, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice to have them both on the perch. I like the alternate head angles. Good comp, and beautiful background. To me it looks like the right bird's head is just out of dof range...if you had time, stopping down to make sure both individuals are equally sharp would have been ideal. Processing-wise you could add a touch of reds to the overall WB. Awesome view of the talons!

[gail bisson]

Thanks for the info Joe.
I like the BG and just wish the male had been within the DOF.
You had lots of SS so you could have stopped down to F 8 which may have been enough to get both owls within the DOF.
Every time I see the cross markers for the owls I could cry. It would be so easy for the town to put up more aesthetically pleasing perches for us photographers!:w3
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Daniel and Gail, too much wishing and not enough fishing. I was hoping it might squeak through. I was photographing the male and the female flew up onto the perch. I focused on her without changing the apeture.

Gail, regarding the perches... I think that those who watch over the owls would rather not have photographers.

Thank you both for viewing and commenting.

[Karl Egressy]

Good information on the species and a great shot of moth male and female, Joe.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, agree with Dans evaluations, but there is a heavy bias in the colour.

With the Raw it's easier to get a better colour balance, but as presented going a fraction cooler on the WB, raising the Tint more towards the Magenta side, then dropping both Yellow & Green in Sat, then plussing both in Luminance does help, but better to address the Raw & RP. I might also ease on the Darks/Shadows if you have time to revisit the file. :S3:

TFS
Steve

[arash_hazeghi]

Steve is right, the colors look totally off to my eye as well. It looks like the light was harsh and you did heavy processing to counter that. The left owl's pupil looks somewhat strange, it looks like there is lots of noise in the pupil? You need to go back to raw and start again :)