Burrowing Owl Taking Off on a Hunt

[Loi Nguyen]

I had a privilege to watch this family of Burrowing Owl hunting and feeding their chick for a couple of days. This is a male jumping off to catch a prey. These guys are really fast and by my account are very successful hunters. Every time they take off after a prey, they came back with one. This is one of the few jumping off images that I had in reasonably sharp focus that show good details of the underwing.

1DX
500f4 Ii + 1.4X III
1/5000
f6.3
ISO-800
BLUBB Bean Bag off a car window.
+1/3 Evaluative metering
Manual Mode

Added canvas to right and top. Cloned out an out of focus dirt mount to allow me to add canvas to the right without being so obviosu.

Appreciate your comments

Thank you

Loi

[vishaljadhav]

Impressive and strong image Loi
the Flight take off is super and the image has good sharpness, the BG is nailed pretty nicely as in previous images of this bird by you.
The composition works nice , in case i would like to change anything then i would take out some of the left so i see less of the bright white on the mound and add canvas on the right, just a suggestion if you can try it too.
best as it is i like it.

[Joe Senzatimore]

I ,too would crop off some of the left side and add canvas. Otherwise a very fine image.

[Marina Scarr]

Very well done on this take off pose, Loi. Super action, lovely BG and I really like his "perch." Great wing extension and visual on the talons. This is my favorite BO shot so far. Look at those details in the feathers around the face.

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot.
Love the take off pose, excellent feather detail, and very nice clean background.
Very well done.

[Bill Dix]

Super timing; you caught the take-off at exactly the right moment for a beautiful composition. And sharp. Nicely done. So much more interesting than the myriad static BUOW images. I could also imagine either toning down the whitewash on the left, or cropping as suggested above.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Fantastic take off pose, love the upright wings and sharpness. Lovely BG too.

[Daniel Cadieux]

One of your better images to date Loi. Excellent sharpness as posted, and a pretty neat take-off pose. I like the mound and the dry grass on it. Good call and good job on canvas extension.

[hirandesilva]

Very Good image Loi, Like the sharpness of the owl and the whole picture being in shades of beige and brown making the yellow Eyes so visible.

Hiran

[gail bisson]

You have done brilliantly with this series.
I love the light and the color palette of these shots.
Tack sharp, great IQ and love the wing position.
Well done Loi,
Gail

[Manjeet & Yograj Jadeja]

beautiful pose and nice detail, nice clear bg
cropping out the droppings near the bottom left corner might help :)

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Much appreciated. It was a great experience to be close to this family of owls for a couple of days!

[David Salem]

Awesome shot Loi. Your best post ever!!! Everything is perfectly lined up with the sensor. Beautiful color and background. great job finding them and getting some nice shots. You might want to print that one

[Loi Nguyen]

Awesome shot Loi. Your best post ever!!! Everything is perfectly lined up with the sensor. Beautiful color and background. great job finding them and getting some nice shots. You might want to print that one

David, thank you! Much appreciated. You are the one who introduced me to this species in the first place. Loi