Burrowing Owl Portrait

[Loi Nguyen]

Trying out a close up portrait of a burrowing owl.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III = 700 mm
1/1000
f5.6
ISO-1600
Lowered Tripod.

The owl was sitting in its burrowing, so close up portrait seems liek the only thing to do here.
It's a heavy crop, should have used the 2X here instead.

Comments are appreciated.

Thank you

Loi

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, nice image. I would have preferred to see the feathers extending to the edges of the frame but maybe vegetation prevented that from happening.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colors.

[keith mitchell]

Loi I think that considering the heavy crop that you pointed out you have some good detail, nice portrait ,cracking eyes.

[Doug Brown]

I like your sharpness (maybe even a little less) and green BG. I would have preferred a horizontal crop for several reasons. First, I'm not a big fan of the tan strip at the bottom of the frame. And with the bird looking to our right, giving at some canvas to look into would have helped. Plus I'd like to see a bit more of the bird and BG than you've included in your OP.

[Loi Nguyen]

I like your sharpness (maybe even a little less) and green BG. I would have preferred a horizontal crop for several reasons. First, I'm not a big fan of the tan strip at the bottom of the frame. And with the bird looking to our right, giving at some canvas to look into would have helped. Plus I'd like to see a bit more of the bird and BG than you've included in your OP.

Thank you everyone for your comments.

Doug, here is a looser crop version. I kind of like it too.

Loi

[Troy Lim]

Nice exposure and sharpness. The RP is still having too much room on the top and left. I would take some off and place the head towards to the upper left a bit.