Spotted Eagle Owl Chick

[Morkel Erasmus]

Haven't posted in Avian for a while! Time she's-a-scarce! :S3:

Just returned from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. One afternoon we came across a triplet of Spotted Eagle Owl chicks who were chock full of attitude and curiosity, and were out of their nest which was located in a tree by the roadside.

This is one of the images I captured. The setting sun was used for rim-lighting. This is full frame - no cropping done. In hindsight I would have liked a tad more space all around - I was photographic facial portraits when this guy jumped up on the branch far enough away to fit him in vertically...

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II + 1.4xTC @ 700mm
f5.6 @ 1/800 SS @ ISO-1400

[gail bisson]

Hi Morkel,
I love the texture of the perch and the lovely BG. I am not crazy about the rim lighting-just too bright for my taste and I feel it causes loss of (perceived) detail on the rest of the bird,
Gail

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Gail. I played with the exposure as the little guy was luckily content with posing for a while, and wasn't liking the "non-blown-highlights" exposures as it lacked the detail I was hoping to achieve here. I could probably have fitted my flash but I didn't know how long he would stay there, and besides I am not sure one would want to strobe an owl in the eye :e3. In the end, I felt having the highlights a bright as they are here gave me the best exposure on the bird itself. I think I was shooting at +0.7 or +1 here.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mork, your + EC has exposed the chick very well, but has made the outline of the plumage fairly hot. I keep going back to the image and the rim light does create a nice outline. Maybe creating one of your B&W masterpieces will work.

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

What a pity about the sun direction, is it not always the way?

For me the rim lighting is just to strong, the colours do not seem very realistic to me, on my monitor they look too blue

[Dan Busby]

Great job of getting the bird exposed for detail Morkel. Nice capture of the open mouth. I find the rim too bright - I think if the rim did not run through the open mouth section it would not seem so bright. And I wish for a head angle more toward you.