Short-eared Owl

Normally they have been hunting in the afternoon, but this one was up early.
7D, 500mm plus 1.4TC, 1/1600, f6.3, ISO400 .

A bit more dof would have been nice, but I was happy at ISO400.

Dave

Nice color,action and background. Owl eye in hunting prey "mode".

Terrific image. Love the attentive stare, the environment and the perfect focus. Fantastic work. Thanks for sharing.

great shot,nice colors,sharp,love the hunting concentration stare,if mine ,I would remove the blue cast on the left wing primeries,and a touch on the other wing,just above the tail feathers.but it is still,a great shot.thanks.

Love the shot in all regards. Curious if anyone know what caused the bluish cast, is the the TC?

I wouldn't think a TC would cause bluish casts. Much more likely shade or indirect light. In any case in this instance it would be easy to get rid of it by simply desaturating the blue and cyan channels.

Awesome image. Love the hunting pose and intense stare, although I would have preferred a full up or down wing position. I'm not sure about the squarish comp...I'd be tempted to crop some off below even at the expense of the bottom grasses.

The eye is awesome on this and wings are what they are. I agree with Daniel on maybe cropping from the bottom just a bit. :5

Nice intense hunting pose on this Dave. A better wing position would be nice but you take what you are given. Dof looks fine to me, sharp where it counts. Agree with a bit off the bottom or perhaps quick mask the owl and content aware scale the bg (smaller instead of the usual adding canvas) so you can keep the bottom grasses. Pretty quick and easy if you have CS5. Well done.
TFS
Todd

If the IQ holds up I'd crop this a LOT closer. Would have preferred extended wings - up or down - to this pose but great image of course. Sharpness, exposure and background are excellent. JR