I think I see his tonsils

[John Hawkins]

Photographed tonight at same site on Mohawk here in Cape Coral. Caught in midyawn. Used my Sony A100 with a Sigma 50-500 lens. Data=f/10, 1/125, +1.0 ev, ISO 160, 330mm. All C&C' welcomed.
Thanks,
John

[Lance Peters]

Hi JOhn - think your right about his tonsils - like the pose - would just run some NR on the background which might just smooth it out a bit and give your bird a bit more pop.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Alfred Forns]

It is a neat view John !!!

One trick for the owls is trying late in the day to underexpose the ambient then use the flash to illuminate the bird. Will compensate for the slow shutter speed and appear razor sharp !!!

We have been trying for head shots to use a 600 with 2X and extension tubes stopping down to f 64 The shutter speed is usually around 1/30th and images come out sharp !!! Can't recall exactly but the ambient reading but think it was just under four stops.

[Gus Cobos]

I like the sleepy pose John....would run a tad of noise reduction in the background...good show...I like the details and the color rendition...:cool:

[John Hawkins]

Thanks guys. Al, I have been doing the opposite. I thought I was to try and push to the right of the histogram and the I could recovery in post and then not have so much noise. I will try your suggestion. This was about 6:30 but the sun was still a bit harsh. But this is a large crop so I'm think that is reason for noise and softness. Am I right? This was the picture straight from the camera.

[Alfred Forns]

John the main problem here is the large crop !! Try crawling up to the bird If you are slow they will tolerate without problem. Taking that much of the image will reduce the quality every time !!!

What I was suggesting is to use your flash as main light while having some of the bg visible so it doesn't look like it was taken at night. The stopping down gives tremendous dof with soft light. Could try to look for some but I remember getting sharp images down to 1/15 sec. Since all the light for the bird is coming from the flash it will be sharp at the slow shutter speed and as a bonus any bg will be soft !!! Neat !!!

Whatever you do the exposure needs to be to the right without going up the side. This one looks excellent.

[Harold Davis]

how is the noise with the A100 at ISO 400? would suggest going there for some more shutter speed. good suggestions above. will try some of those myself!!

you can get so close to these guys that you will need tubes for the 50-500!!