Giant Eagle Owl

[Jan Saunders]

Taken by spotlight at Elephant Plains.

Canon 7D
100 - 400 L USM IS Lens
ISO 1000
Manual
80 th of Second
f 5.4
Monopod with Gimble head.

[Doug Brown]

I like the use of off-axis lighting, which helps create an effective nighttime atmosphere. I'd like a bit more room up top and a little less at the bottom of the frame. I'd also like to see this 1024 pixels wide.

[Nelson Mena Alfaro]

really nice owl

[Nancy Bell]

You achieved a great effect with the spotlight. I can just see the pink eyelid! I agree with Doug about the slight change in cropping.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Jan, very cool! I love the spotlight effect, and the pose of the owl. Great all black BG too. Hope you don't mind that I've offered an alternate take on your image by eliminating the tree trunk and placing the owl lower in the frame. Very subjective of course.

[Doug Brown]

I like Daniel's take on it.

[Melvin Grey]

Very effective lighting. This is also known as the Verreaux's Eagle Owl - those amazing pink eyelids clinch it. A very nice atmospheric image. I must admit I prefer Daniel's crop.

[Karen Forderer]

I really like the atmosphere created by the lighting. I prefer Daniel's crop as well.

[PhilCook]

I have only taken Owl images with the use of torch and flash but mine generally look over flashed, much prefer this kind of exposure though, much more natural....agree regarding the crop as per Dougs suggestion

[Ken Watkins]

Jan,

I am a great fan of spotlit images in particular of animals, I just think they look much better than flash. This is a beauty and re-post by Daniel takes it to new heights

[Giuseppe Varano]

Very nice work with off axis lighting and amazing nocturnal atmosphere.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image of Owl in spot light with nice BG.I like the nighttime atmosphere, pose of bird and perch.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jan Saunders]

Thanks Daniel for the advice. This crop is almost the same as another photo I took that evening - I composed the image to get the owl in the left top corner, and got the tree into the picture - I must say I also rather like your take on it. I will post my other image later.

Kind regards

Jan Saunders