Owl for the Day

[Michael Stern]

Hi
Here is a little burowwing owl landing feet first....watch out you are not in front of him!! I guess with some effort I could "darken" the bottom of the photo to match the upper, however, that was not how it was. As usual all comments and suggestions welcome...and thank you for looking!!!!
Best,
Michael

Details: Taken approx 5:30PM ish....
Canon 40D
Lens 70-200f2.8 with 1.4x
Shutter speed: 1/5000 sec
Aperture: 4.5
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: -2/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Focal length: 140mm

[Arthur Morris]

Aside from being a sharp image of an owl with a cool landing pose this image has lots of serious problems most notably a poor light angle (from the right and behind) and a very distracting background. I am a lover of what is but nature photography often requires us to work around reality in order to create a good image.

[Michael Stern]

Aside from being a sharp image of an owl with a cool landing pose this image has lots of serious problems most notably a poor light angle (from the right and behind) and a very distracting background. I am a lover of what is but nature photography often requires us to work around reality in order to create a good image.

Dear Artie,
Yes,, I agree, and will work on it and your thoughts ideas etc is MUCH APPRECIATED by me! Thank you for taking the time! I believe the light was from the left as he was landing into the sun.......not positive...
BEST,
Michael

[Arthur Morris]

Yes, obviously from the left as the back is shaded. Best to have your shadow pointing pretty much at the subject most times. Thanks for being so accepting!

[Jim Poor]

I can deal with the side light, though there are some pretty bright spots in the feathers. A little S/H helped, but not completely. Maybe you could dial back the exposure in RAW. The BG bothers me less when the horizon is rotated straight.

If it were my own, I would take the time to add BG to fill in the blank areas caused by the rotation, but for this example I chose to just crop tighter.