Barred Owl Landing

[Loi Nguyen]

Another image from a private tour with Jim Neiger near Orlando. This male barred owl heard the owl call and came out to investigate. He would fly from branch to branch on the other side of a narrow channel following the boat, giving us great opportunities to shoot BIF handheld. It was difficult since his flight path was short and the BG was busy and in the shade, so I was happy to get a couple of frames in decent focus.

1DX
500f4 II
1/2500
f5.6
ISO-1000
Handheld from boat.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Loi

[Giovanni Frescura]

Very very nice...it is very interesting!

[Henry Domke]

Fabulous!
The Spanish moss dangling from the trees adds wonderful texture and interest.

I hope to go out with Jim Neiger some day. Even though I've never met him I found his eBook "Flight Plan; How to Photograph Birds in Flight" to be a extremely helpful.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the landing pose and the view of talons, looks like the focus locked on one of the branches ? (head details look a bit crunchy to my eye) the environment was quite busy and the owl gets lost in the many distractions...I would crop him tighter if you have details

TFS

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your comments.

Arash, you are right about the focus off the head. The branch behind the bird does look to be in better focus although the center AF point put the focus near the tail. I could go a little tighter at least for web posting. I tried to sharpen the head a little corser this time (60/0.7/0) vs. the rest (120/0.3/0) using Unsharp mask, not sure if it solves the crunchiness. I wish the head would be sharper.

Thanks again.

Loi

[Holger Leyrer]

The pose is great. Sharpness and detail also. The color palette works very well
I like the repost.

[Satish Ranadive]

Very very nice image of well camouflaged owl in nice environment. I like the wing and fanned tail feathers and talons held in front of face.In all great image.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the outstretched talons, wing position, fanned tail and repost looks better to me. Nice image Loi!