Burrowing Owl Hunting

[David Salem]

Happy New Year Everyone!

I had a cool opportunity last spring while shooting these Owls. Once the babies are out of the burrows for a few weeks they start learning to hunt on their own while dad is catching insects for them.
This baby saw something in the grass and flew towards it. Once it got to the spot, it couldnt see the insect and it started hovered in front of a friend and I.
It was the first time I had seen one hover and I was lucky enough to lock on and get a nice sequence with many wing and head positions.

1DMkIV---700mm---f5.6---ss1/2500---ISO800---HH from truck @7:45am---20% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

David

[Mike Milicia]

Beautiful light and BG and gotta love those eyes ... very nicely done!

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image with wonderful color scheme.Love the lose and eye of the owl.

Regards,
Satish.

[Bob Serling]

Great shot, David. The owl couldn't have flown against a better background for this. And like everyone else, I agree that the eyes locked on its target are awesome. I also like the folded claws.

[Markus Hanika]

Really nice one.
I like the 3d look with a nice field of depth as well as the tone-in-tone colors.
The wings position has been captured in the right moment also.
For me the look could also be interpreted like the baby owl is highly focussed - probably heavily trying to keep control while flying.

[John Stuelpnagel]

Wonderful image David. As others have said, the bg and the eyes are outstanding. I also like the dropped legs.

[David Salem]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[stuart wanuck]

intense and look at those eyes!

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the intense eyes, exposure, composition and complimentary BG. Excellent image David!

[Danny Laredo]

Stunning image.

[ThomasChadwick]

Love the eyes, background, and the angle of the head. Good job.

Thomas

[Doug Brown]

Great light and an excellent pose. Love those big pupils!

[Glenn Conlan]

Great capture Dave, we sure had a great time capturing these little guys. Hope they have another successful breeding year.

Glenn

[Richard Flack]

Absolutely awesome!!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Sweet light and a gorgeous pose, David. Love those hanging talons and the large pupils. Your comp is excellent, but if you twisted my arm, I'd say add a tad more to the top and to the right.
Another winner from you.

[catalani giovanni]

great photo

[adrian dancy]

Excellent colour, lighting and flight pose. There appears to be some cloning around the primaries of the outstretched wing. If this can be corrected this would be an outright killer image.

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone for the comments.

Adrian, I didn't do any cloning on this image. I see what you are seeing but I think it is the color of the primary ends mixed with a bit of wing blur. Thanks for the input.

[Shawn Zierman]

The image is signature in regards to your nice punchy color saturation (and I'm saying that believing it has more to do with the light quality and geography of where you shoot than post processing).... The flight pose and huge eyes really grab me. Awesome image. You've quite the collection of this species! You could easily blend out what Adrian pointed out.

[Holger Leyrer]

Eye contact and colours are great. Love the spread wing and tail. Incredible photo.

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent flight pose and sharp details.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the comments!!

[arash_hazeghi]

all has been said, what a great frame David!

[Troy Lim]

I have seen the adults doing that when they are checking out the potential prey. But to see a youngster doing that, sweet. The light is so beautiful.