Owl in its pad

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I found this fellow at a local park, cozy in its hole. I stood up on a bench that was nearby to get a better angle with my 100-400 L. Used a better beamer on the 430 EX II. (First time I used a better beamer to fill light)
Handheld shot with the 7D.

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Exposure	0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	400 mm
ISO Speed	400
Exposure Bias	0 EV
Flash	On, Fired

[dankearl]

Funny look and a cool place it chose to hang out in.
Your Beamer worked well, the exposure looks nice and the tree has character.

[Diane Miller]

The cross-eyed look is cute! I've tried the Beamer with owls and gotten red-eye, even with not enough light to help the overall exposure. Good work!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Cool! love the eyes! red eyes are easy fix in this one by the way! I would crop about a 10% on top.

[PhilCook]

hehehehe....I like it Sanjeev, looking a lot like our Boobook Owls here. liking the " peekaboo " comp in it's hollow. I don't mind the crop as is, but think this could also work nicely in a tighter vertical crop ratio

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sanjeev, the cross eyed, eye contact takes this up a few notches, and yes, his 'pad' looks cool. As presented, the URC is a touch distracting, and I thought I would share my version how I saw this. Cropped to vertical, added in some BG in the URC via the clone tool, and added some sharpening to the Owl and 'pad'. I also added a very slight blur to the BG too.

PS. Seems like Phil and myself were typing at the same time.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I like your RP Stuart. It has improved upon mine. I had a second image that I cropped vertically but couldn't decide whether to post the horizontal or vertical one. His 'pad' is cool as it seems like it was custom made for him hehehe....and I kinda liked the quizzical look he gave me when I was aiming at him. He allowed me a few shots and then flew into a nearby tree.

[Satish Ranadive]

Sanjeev:
Magnificent image of cute owl.Very nice colors,sharpness and look of the bird.
Beautiful work on owl by Stuart Sir,great composition in repost.

Regards,
Satish.

[Loi Nguyen]

Sanjeev, I think both crops have merit. The OP shows the environment well and how camouflage the owl is in its environment. The RP shows the owl better. So it all depends on what you want to show. Love the image. Good use of BB. Sharp eye. Nitpicking, I'd like to see more details on the owl chest. Not sure why it looks a bit soft or may be a wee bit too much flash there?

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Loi, yes probably the flash was a bit too much, though I set the flash exposure to -1. I read instructions of the BB and it says I have to set the zoom number on flash to 50mm but mine was on 105mm. Anyone has experience with this?

[Tim King]

I like both posts but prefer the first as it shows the tree's unique bark pattern. Fine job.

[Matthew Studebaker]

Fun seeing this bird peek out of the hole. I know most people will disagree with me, but I never like the look of flash. I would have just metered for the bird and taken a longer exposure. Flash always makes it look flat to me. Still, very nice image.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hey Sanjeev, your are getting too good now, 1/80 as well crank up that ISO.

Like Stu's suggested crop if the IQ is there. Might drop a little Cyan and Magenta from the white.