New years Owls

[Michael Thompson]

I have not got out birding much the last few months, but had the day off today, so thought I would give it a go in a park near Minneapolis, where owl sightings have been reported. We saw a few around, and I got a few pics, then sat down for a bit, my friend wandered off. 10 minutes later I heard her shutter going, and I went over to see what was up, and found these beautiful Long Eared Owls sitting together in the thick cover. lots of stick around, as usual, but luckily there were a couple open spots to shoot with out the birds being obstructed. Canon 7Dll with the Canon 100-400ll @ 400 mm, f6.3, 1/160, 1000iso, handheld, as it would be very hard to set up a tripod to get it at the angle needed to avoid overlapping sticks.

[Arthur Morris]

You did a good job of finding the best slot. Both faces could use some selective sharpening via a Contrast Mask and the eyes and face of the closer bird need to be opened up a bit, i.e., lightened.

[Michael Thompson]

You did a good job of finding the best slot. Both faces could use some selective sharpening via a Contrast Mask and the eyes and face of the closer bird need to be opened up a bit, i.e., lightened.

I actually posted the wrong frame, i thought it looked a bit soft, I like the idea of lightning the front owls face a pit, thanks, I added some in lightroom, before repost.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the eye contact, setting and composition. Repost is an improvement. Nice image Michael.