Burrowing Owl (Lechucita Vizcachera)

[Patricio Murphy]

Hi,
I've had very little chances of shooting birds in the last few months, today I was browsing the archive and found this picture from a couple of years ago.
http://www.patriciomurphy.com.ar/foros/luro_092.jpg

Light was awful and it was windy, I was using the D70 qith the AI Nikkor 400mm f/3.5 and added for this shot the TC301 2x tc, all set up on tripod (a Manfrotto 190, not the best choice for that combo). I shot a sequence of this one, mostly not sharp enough, but I like this one because of the pose and the fact that she's looking straight into the camera. That trip was a photographic failure for the most (we were looking for deers, it rained four days in a row, the sky was black most of the time, we were soaked, you get the picture - pun intended) :-), but this one saved the day for me.
ISO 800, 1/250. The D70 doesn't record aperture with these lenses, but I can guess it was wide open (which translates into f/7.1).

[Doug Brown]

But for some more sharpness, it's a pretty nice image. At first I was bothered by the OOF bush in front of the owl, but the more I looked at the image the less I was bothered. I like the great eye contact and the nice BG.

[denise ippolito]

Patricio, I think the expression is adorable! I like the unique composition-agree w/ a bit more sharpening-

[Daniel Cadieux]

I really wish this was sharper. I like the look of the owl, it looks quite miserable in those conditions! I would crop out a good portion of the left as that area brings nothing to the image - and with the owl looking straight-on the centered comp would work. Some of the branches at left look like if the front lens element was wet?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the composition and the stare and would sharpen the bird some more.

[Stu Bowie]

The eye contact, together with those lovely round eyes makes this for me. What a great OOF BG. Well captured.

[Patricio Murphy]

I'l, give it some more sharpening, as suggested. I'm fearful about cropping, since I like to keep the images in a size that would allow me to get them on print properly, and this is a 6Mp original. Now, how much crop do you think one such image (roughly 3000x2000) can take in order to get 30x45cm prints (some 11x18", if my math's not wrong)?

[Patricio Murphy]

Here it goes a repost with some more sharpening, I do think it gets better, but I shouls do it selectively, it seems to bring some artifacts in the branches:

http://www.patriciomurphy.com.ar/foros/luro_092_sharpen.jpg