Pearl-spotted owlet

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A pearl-spotted owlet from Kruger taken close to sunset. Loved seeing these owls relatively frequently in the park -- wish we had an equivalent one in NJ! In post, NR, cropped to maybe 80% of the FF.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC
Specs: 1/640 f/6.3 ISO 2,000

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful owl, love the eyes. Similar markings to the Barred Owl. I like the perch, guess I wish more was in focus but sometimes not possible. I don't think the vertical branch adds much so if mine I might be inclined to remove it. Thank you for sharing, Alex.

[Bill Dix]

Congratulations on getting to see this beauty -- and more than once. We only got one look, and that was in near darkness. The shot is very nice, with good detail and super eye contact. Did you use flash? I'm inclined to agree with Joe about the vertical branch, but would love to have this in my files with or without.

[dankearl]

Excellent look at this Owl.... Vertical branch is fine with me,
I would selectively trim the shoots off the horizontal branch.

[John Mack]

Love the eye contact and those little catchlights of the fading sun in the eyes. I don't mind the branch on the left it frames the owl nicely with the ones on the right.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Really like the image.
I love the eye

I am ok with the framing. Nice to see that there are no intersecting branches.

TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the eyes! Good high-key treatment too. I also like the claw showing below the perch, cool.

[Dorian Anderson]

The eye carry this image and help draw focus away from the somewhat distracting OOF bits on the branch. I love that we can see the rise cracking/departing the horizon. Bird jumps with the high key treatment, I just wish a bit more of the perch was in focus.

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all, much appreciated.


Congratulations on getting to see this beauty -- and more than once. We only got one look, and that was in near darkness. The shot is very nice, with good detail and super eye contact. Did you use flash? I'm inclined to agree with Joe about the vertical branch, but would love to have this in my files with or without.

Bill, I had great luck with both seeing owls in Kruger and getting them in the open. Got great looks at an African Barred Owlet, 2 Pearl-spotted (saw 5 in the end though), and one Eagle owl at first light (backlit). Funny since only got really one good lion sighting -- quite the opposite of what I thought. No flash on this shot.

Thanks again,

[arash_hazeghi]

love the little owl with perfect eye contact. you nailed the high key exposure, sharp with good details. the perch could be better especially all the small twigs need to go, once you cleanup the lower perch, I can live with the secondary (vertical) branch

TFS