The Cave Keeper

[Andrew McLachlan]

During a recent trip to the island of Cayman Brac in the Caribbean I explored many caves for Barn Owls, which are relatively common there and are often found roosting within the caves. Towards the end of my trip I finally lucked out and found a co-operative owl roosting near the op of one of the caves.

Created several various compositions, but kinda liked this wider view the best.

Nikon D800
Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 145mm
ISO 5000 5.6 @ 1/250
D800's pop-up flash used to illuminate the cave's interior.

Look forward to comments.

[Bryan Munn]

Nice shot...I particularly like the "habitat" aspect of it. Surprising how much the owl looks like a piece of rock.

Barn owls are weird creatures, and difficult to photograph in anything resembling a nice setting. They are usually somewhat skittish, and roost in the darkest, most dense places they can find. I typically find them roosting in some rotten old building with "whitewash" splattered all over their roost. Then, they either spook and fly off, or refuse to open their eyes.

The only decent shots I have ever got of them have been at night with flash...which is no fun.

[gail bisson]

Any day one sees a barn owl is a good day in my books!
I am not loving this one Andrew.
I see where you were going with this but the massive rock on the left side of the frame really overwhelms the viewer.
I see you were at 145 mm so I am hoping you got a vertical image at 400mm with just the rock the owl is perched on and with the owl placed in the right upper third. This would also keep that nice diagonal line in the rock face in play.
I'm not asking much am I?
Gail

[dankearl]

Nice idea and a nice photo, but more of a Landscape for me than a small bird in the frame.
The detail on the rock walls is terrific and steals the show. The Owl is a nice feature in the photo, but this is
not an avian photo to me.

[Troy Lim]

I love your idea of going wider in this shot. While I like the overall idea, the brightness on the rock on the left is just overpowering the subject, my focus is more on the rock than the owl itself.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is fully an avian image to me. I see what the folks mean though about the large rock feature at left stealing the spotlight...perhaps if you toned it down and did not sharpen it? I was sure this was sunlight until I read your caption!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andrew, I'm beginning to spot your posting, as I just love the way you capture and frame your subjects in truck loads of space, it just really works IMHO. I might ease off on any sharpening on the rocks, and easy fix, but a joy to view.

TFS
Steve

[Marina Scarr]

This image is really working for me Andrew!!! The rock on the left is not an issue for me although I agree on not sharpening it at all not to draw more attention in that direction. I love the textures here, and the curature of the various rocks. Your crop works nicely and you placed the owl in a perfect spot to make it stand out. The environment just screams here, yet the owl is NOT lost!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks folks, much appreciate the comments...I will tone down the brightness of the rocks and sharpen only the owl.

Gail - I did shoot many various compositions including some with my D800's crop sensor options so that the effective focal length became 600mm...will post in a few days.