Sleepy Short-Ear

[Steve Large]

Hi Everyone,
Here is a picture of my favorite owl out at Nanaimo River Estuary. I don't know if he is sick or just sleepy but it was quite easy to got close to him yesterday.

Stats: Canon 50D, 500mm, 1/250sec at F8, ISO 250
Used one pass with Topaz Denoise and then applied USM

Thanks for your comments,

Steve

[Michael Bertelsen]

Fantastic Image Steve,
Very nice background, I might of given a little more space above the head just because the background is so nice.

Michael Bertelsen

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Lovely tones/colors here, with great eyes, interesting but subdued perch, sharp, well exposed.
Agree with Michael, a sliver more room at top.

Top drawer!

Cheers

Randy

[Nancy Bell]

This is an outstanding image! How lucky that you have such a cooperative bird! All my views of Short-eared Owls are always of them flying away :(. The pose with the full face showing both of the brilliant yellow eyes is perfect, as well as the clean and sharp details and the exposure. I do agree with the others about a bit more room at the top. Very well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Steve! I like the eyes, perch, sharpness and BG. Another vote for more room on top.

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Steve,beautiful capture. Love those eyes. The BG and the perch works well. TFS.

[Bill Dix]

Stunning image. Love the perch, and the BG color compliments the bird nicely. Ditto more room at top. I'm still waiting to catch one of these guys.

[Matthew Studebaker]

This is RIDICULOUS! I'm so jealous, everything about this is perfect IMO, fantastic perch, colors, pose, contrast, AMAZING!

[Troy Lim]

Bravo, stunning details and sharpness. Love the BG and composition. Well done!

[Steve Large]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments. I guess it could be said that it is a major weakness of mine to crop a bit too tight. I will adjust the original image to give more room at the top. Had to dumb the detail down a bit to meet the requirements for posting. The original as my wallpaper shows even more detail as it is of course larger. Couldn't believe the background and thought it almost looked like a composite of two images when I first saw it on my camera's LCD. Not the kind of thing that happens every day for sure.

Take care and good light,

Steve

[Don Lacy]

Hi Steve, Just a wonderful image all around from the moss covered perch to beautiful light and subject. Just a touch more room on the top as has been mention

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Just fantastic. Colors, sharpness, pose are incredible. More space at top has been mentioned but it may require adding also more on the left. Perhaps a bit brighter for the mid-tones might be great as well. JR

[Craig Brelsford]

Congratulations on shooting this elusive owl so well. I do feel he's a bit crowded in the frame.

[RAM MALLYA]

Lovely bird here like the compo BG and the perch.

[Harshad Barve]

Big time congrats for this absolute rocking image
TFS

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great image, like a painting.. loved the setting a lot..