Barred Owl with prey

[Lyle Gruby]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. Spotted this owl while driving though a wildilife managment area in Arkansas. I watched her as she flew down from a fallen tree and grabbed a crawdaddy. She then flew to a tree where she had an almost full grown chick waiting. The chick flew off as I turned with the lens, but the mother sat and ate the prey. I took a couple shots and drove off so I wouldn't disturb them anymore.
Shot with a D7000
Nikon 200-400 f4 with 1.4 teleconverter
1/400
f5.6
ISO 400



http://500px.com/photo/8630973

[Randy Stout]

Lyle:

Welcome to BPN. Your image isn't showing up. Probably a linking problem. I have included a link to our site on how to post images. Check it out if you haven't already. If you are still having problems, send a private message to one of the moderators, and we can usually fix it!

Cheers

Randy

[Lyle Gruby]

http://500px.com/photo/8630973

Ok, attempting to re-post

[Lyle Gruby]

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8159/7386433790_9c576076ed_b_d.jpgTest reply

[Randy Stout]

Lyle:
Glad you got the link to work. A bit finicky at times. Members are able to host their images on the BPN server, which makes it a bit easier.

Nice sense of motion with the blurred wingtips, relatively sharp face. Prey item a plus. The bird is tight in the frame. Esp. for images with motion, flight for example, it is nice to leave some room for that motion to 'move into'. Less so for portraits, esp if the bird is looking right you.

I might be tempted to push the ISO up a bit more to give you some more flexibility with your shutter speed for flight shots. Generally speeds of 1/1000S and up are needed, depending on angle of bird in frame, speed of bird, etc.

The dark background makes your subject standout well.

Look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Sorry Lyle and Randy - I don't see an image????

[Lyle Gruby]

Thanks for the reply Randy. I agree with all your points. This happened very quickly. I wish I would have had time to manipulate the ISO. I knew my shutter speed was slow, but I also knew the owl was about to take off. I just hoped I could pan with it well enough to get a sharp head. I have already added a sliver of canvas to the right, I agree it could use more.