Peek-a-BUOW

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Canon 1D4, 300 f2.8, 1.4x
420mm, 1/1000, f9, iso 640

I spent some time with Kaustubh's friendly burrowing owl a couple weeks ago.
The owl had a lazy morning, and never ventured out of the burrow during my short visit. I went low and waited for some playful moments.

Thanks to Kaustubh for telling me this location and for his previous great posts on this owl without which I'm not sure if I would have thought of going low and using oof fg to my advantage.Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

PS: sorry about the cheesy title :)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sid, 1 just love these type of images with the subject blending into the surrounding BG. Great eye contact, sharp, and those eyes pop nicely from the greens of the foliage. An opportunity well used. :w3

[Dan Brown]

Very unique shot and great "cheesy" title! Creative use of a banding code!

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Yes, its quite different from what we are used to see. The head appears to emerge from the OOF foliage and BG. Works well.

[Mark Itol]

Love it, Sid. Great eye contact, colors, and detail.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

A great image, with the sharp, well exposed head rearing out from the background. Very effective!

Richard

[Grace Scalzo]

Very creative, with a bit of humor. Owl looks a bit disheveled like you just woke him up.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Love it! I can just imagine it on a step stool and still just barely able to peek up over the grass:S3:. OOF FG works very well and all the techs look great.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Sid, terrific. you got much better blur than any of my shots. well done. terrific comp.

[Marina Scarr]

This picture rocks. Love the OOF FG and the way it is sitting in the middle of the green really works. I'll have to give it a shot over here but not sure we have grass this healthy and green.

[Doug Brown]

You used the OOF FG and BG grass to great effect Sidharth. I'm actually a little surprised that you got such shallow DOF at f/9; must have been the low angle.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Doug, he is likely closer to the bird than my shot (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/94691-Hello-world) . hence f/9 is giving that blur. his is probably full frame whereas mine is slightly cropped( plus mine is aps-c and his aps-H) I'll need extension tube on my 400f5.6....he is using 300 with tc...thats the beauty of tc...increases focal length but does not increase MFD.

BTW, the bird is very very cool with close approach. so many folks out here have got head shots....its amazing. The birding community has now put out a plea of restraint that I am honoring :-) I will go back to try more in-habitat shots like the in-flowers shots that I got....a few weeks later perhaps.

But this one is going to be neglected as there has been a Snowy Owl sighting in Dallas this week :-) or perhaps not.... as birders from all over texas will come to see Snowy Owl and add Burrowing Owl to their Dallas County list.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thank you all for the comments.

KD is right, this is close to, if not FF (I'll confirm when I get home).

The DOF was indeed very shallow. From the tip of the bill, it barely makes it through to the eyes.
I should also mention that the fg and bg grass is not really as close to him as it appears. I positioned myself so as to avoid gravel surrounding the burrow and used a small path of grass that was about a foot in front of him.
The shallow dof and the fact that he's not directly in the grass is what gives it the blur.

Here's one at f11 with a 500f4 + 1.4x (big in the frame and a bone head comp, but just for demonstration).
f11 was good DOF to cover enough of the bird but still get blurred fg and bg. This one is FF too.

[dankearl]

I loved the first one and the second even better.
Very unique and very well done.

[Tom Rambaut]

Great subject and very cool perspective.

[Robert Holguin]

Superb image. Excellent low angle, great light, and I love how he/she just pops from the pic.
Well done.

[EzhilSuresh]

Sidharth, beautiful shots. Both the posts are unique and very nicely composed.

[gail bisson]

Sid,
I love both of these images. Excellent tutorial here as well,
Gail

[Tim Kaufman]

awesome! i tried to make a similar image last week and couldn't come close! --Tim

(i like the 2nd one better...the eyes look nicer)

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thank you all. Appreciate the comments.
All the credit for uniqueness goes to Kaustubh.
Without his killer post here (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/94691-Hello-world), it is likely I wouldn't have even thought of it.