Short-eared Owl

[Dave Leroy]

It was an incredible morning. Tthe owl insisted I take its picture. It waited until the light was right and then gave me six different perches in 4 different directions and all but one more or less frame filling and one portrait only. It took 20 minutes.

This is the first perch and i know ha is perhaps a bit tight. It was a windy morning and the owls wings would float up and down on the gusts.

7D, 500mm, f/4, ISO640.

Dave

[John Guastella]

Wonderful image, Dave! Fantastic detail, depth, and richness. I especially like the 90° head turn away from the viewer, which is complemented by the raised wings. I think the image would be improved if you had captured more of the perch, and I would crop some from the top. Great photo -- really shows what the 500 f/4 can do in the right hands.

John

[Jaap Bakker]

Incredible beauty.
Congratulations with this one.

Sharpness,details,BG,the eye is all beautiful.

[Grant Atkinson]

Stunning owl shot, I love the details and patterns created in the feathers, and that 'hole' in the feathers made by the wind I am guessing. If it were mine I would just slightly warm and darken the washed out whitish tree trunk the owl is perched on. You have captured an unusual pose of a striking bird with a good BG. Top shot
TFS
Grant

[RakeshDhareshwar]

No nits ! This is one cute image of this wonderful owl !!!

[Tom Redd]

Dave, I really like this beauty. I like the unusual pose with the wings up. I would vote for a bit more of the perch also as it looks like it has character as well. Very cool.

[Munish Kaushik]

Beautiful !!! Perfect shot :-)

Regards,
Munish Kaushik
www.facebook.com/kaushik.munish
www.seenwild.com

[Levina de Ruijter]

Oh my, what a beautiful image. Love it for all the reasons above and then some.

[Stu Bowie]

Dave, I like the symmetry of both the perch and the slightly raised wings. What a striking eye, and that BG is a killer.

[Troy Lim]

Dave,

What was your reason shooting at f4? I am curious. Why not stopping down a bit more?
Personally, I would like a tighter crop, too much room on top and right.
The eye is stunning.....hope to get a chance to photography these guys one day. :S3:

[Dumay de Boulle]

I love this...The eye and IQ are mind blowing...Congrats:cheers:

[Dave Leroy]

Dave,

What was your reason shooting at f4? I am curious. Why not stopping down a bit more?
Personally, I would like a tighter crop, too much room on top and right.
The eye is stunning.....hope to get a chance to photography these guys one day. :S3:

Hi Troy,

Thanks for looking and commenting.

Oops, I missed out on posting the 1/500th ss.

I did take some at f/5.6 and with the high wind I preferred the extra bit of ss. I knew there was a lot of detail there and felt uncomfortable about higher ISO's.

Also this pose I felt gave the best look at the floating wings rather than some of the ones at f5.6.

And hopefully you will get a chance to photo them. They are extremely photogenic.

Dave

[Steven Kersting]

I really like the sharpness of this....
Two things that bother me slightly, a bit of green in upper left corner creeping in (could just crop down some) and the very tips of the wings being out of focus, that just doesn't fit with all the other sharpness/detail (might be able to do some selective sharpening)

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

That is outstanding. The HA doesn't bother me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a terrific opportunity you had!! I'm in agreement about more perch and less above. I'll be the odd one out by saying I am not crazy about the HA...this image would have been killer with both eyes showing. The one visible eye here is fantastic though. Great view of the talons too!

[denise ippolito]

I love this shot, very interesting and it's unique. I agree a bit more perch would have been nice-Love it!:S3:

[Melissa Groo]

I think this is just gorgeous. The detail is wonderful, I can so easily imagine what the feathers feel like on the breast. Wonderful BG too!

[James Fuller]

Cool wing position, looks like he is doing a little dancing.