Whiskered Screech-Owl

[Walker Noe]

I photographed this owl in Madera Canyon, Arizona, May 2017. It was resting peacefully in its day roost, and my friends and I felt lucky to stumble upon it.

Postprocessing: usual sliders, crop for comp, sharpening on bird, NR (now that I look again it looks overaggressive) on BG and tree.

Tech:
Nikon D500
600mm f4
1.4x TC
tripod mounted

1/250
f/5.6
ISO 1600

[Bill Dix]

Great looking little owl. Face looks sharp, and at least you got one eye partially open. My few screech owls are usually sleeping. I don't mind the aggressive NR on the dark BG, but it does make the tree look too smoothed out.

[William Dickson]

A fine image. I like how the bird is framed by the tree. lovely feather detail and a nice POV. Well done.

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Perch/setting is great, but without more of his eye the image doesn't connect as it could. Also looks a bit cool. Maybe a few point of yellow to bring out
the browns a bit.

[Walker Noe]

Thanks for the feedback! I have lots of frames of this bird, I will go check for better eye contact, check the warmth, and rework the NR!