Great Gray in Cottonwood

[Ashleigh Scully]

Canon 5D MIII
Canon 500mm f/4

Manual Exposure, Tripod Mounted

ISO 800
f/4
1/500s

There was so much detail in these Cottonwood branches that we struggled to get the file under 400kb. Had to shrink it down under 1024w and a JPG quality of 80.

Ashleigh sharpened the owl's face and did a Saturation Layer on the yellows. It's a great looking image at full res.

Late afternoon light on this.

[keith mitchell]

Ashleigh your Owl looks great against that really nice soft green BG ,something has really caught those super yellow eyes, very nice indeed.

Keith.

[Randy Stout]

Nice to get a clear view of the owl, despite a busy environment. Facial disc looks like it could stand a bit more sharpening still.

Good placement of bird in the frame.

Dappled light is often a challenge, but overall works well here. Wish for a bit more on the face of course!

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the setting, composition and pose. I am seeing a blue cast in the image. Nice image Ashleigh.

[Arthur Morris]

I love the setting and the soft though dappled light. I prefer the color of the original post to that of the repost but thank Jim for his efforts. I guess I like the bluer light. While I like the stare, I wish that we could see a bit more of the bird's right eye.

[Ashleigh Scully]

Thanks everybody! I have some more from this series I'll see if I have some with more eye contact!

[Stuart Laughton]

Ashleigh, this gorgeous photo reflects my personal preference for birds shown in their environment. For me, the central appeal is the bark on the left side of the tree replicating the owl's plumage. And to 'ice the cake' you have the delicate (almost Japanese print-type foliage) in the lower left quadrant, balancing the bird's eyes (which are focused on the foliage). If this were my photo I'd be budgeting for a VERY expensive picture frame mounting.

[Marina Scarr]

Good call by Jim on the cast but I think he may have pushed the yellows a tad too much for my taste. The environment on this image is absolutely tops, esp the design of the perch and the green leaves. Would have preferred seeing more of the right eye but still a very fine image.