Olympic Tribute: Sticking the Landing

I'm getting excited about the upcoming London Olympics. Here's a Burrowing Owl doing his best impression of a gymnast sticking the landing.

Attachment 115683

Canon 5D Mark III, 600mm II, f/4, 1/4000, ISO 800, manual exposure, hand held

Doug:

Fun, unusual pose, well exposed, great eye contact.

Because of the pose and eyes straight ahead, I might consider a crop from the left. Because of the strong diagonals created by the wings and legs, I think the more squarish crop would work well.

I also might have traded a bit of shutter speed for a little more dof?

Cheers

Randy

Cool landing pose well captured, Doug. Love the low angle and background.

Terrific, Doug. A wonderfully unusual look at this amazing bird...

The image draws your attention to the eye's... like the excellent use of DOF, pastel colors and detail... Lovely shot Doug

excellent landing pose and I love those talons! wish we had one here!

The talons and the eye contact are really nice. Interesting setting, a very stark location it appears.

Seems that the new 600 is doing well.

Awesome shot with great landing pose. The bird looking at the camera makes this amazing!

Markus

Captivating pose, love seeing the talons and stare. Wish the wing wasn't quite so close to the horizon line and maybe (?) a tad more contrast.

Awesome capture Doug! Love the energy.

Love the action, great head angle stare, and the talons. I like the composition as is.

nice landing pose,the eyes and talons magic,well done.

Fantastic landing pose with good details.

Carmelo

And it's a perfect 10, Doug. A very unique pose, timed just perfectly. Direct eye contact is icing on the cake. Comp is perfect too. Terrific work!

Wonderful landing pose,Sir. Excellent composition with lovely lights and colors.
Love the pose,great details,BG and superb expression in the eyes..
Regards,
Satish.

What a great shot, perfect timing. Just love the pose and those little talons are the icing on the cake.
I was initially going to suggest lowering the brightness a little but I expect the conditions were indeed very bright.

Awesome pose Doug, also love the eye contact. Congrates on new 600.

Thanks for the comments everyone!