Burrowing Owl at Sunrise

[Loi Nguyen]

Why did I wake up at 4:30 AM on a Sunday? Simple. So that I could position the vehicle at this owl favorite perch before he took up position. There was a may be 5 minute window when the sun just broke over the distant horizon and warmed up everything in its path with a glorious warm red rays. You could see the half sun in the owl's eyes.

1DX
500f4 II + 2X III = 1000mm
1/160
F8
ISO3200
BLUBB bean bag over car window.
Took a sliver off top, right, bottom, and added a sliver to the left.
Increased exposure by 0.5 EV in LR5 - there wasn't enough light!

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Karl Egressy]

Nice image, sharp where it counts, Loi. I like the big open eyes and the natural perch.

[Andy Shepherd]

What amazing eyes!!!, great work, Loi.

[Gerald Kelberg]

The magic is in seeing the sunrise in those wonderful big eyes!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Love it Troy, beautiful bird, the sunrise reflected in the eyes is special.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Loi, this is a superb image, love those large eyes with reflection of the sunrise, you efforts were well worth it! Well done.

[David Salem]

Those are as big of pupils on a BO that I have ever seen. Glad our owl encounter together a few years ago has spurred you to keep chasing this species. I like the pose and the perch too but the visible sunrise in the pupils takes this over the top. Nice one Loi!

[arash_hazeghi]

patience and persistence paid dividends here, great pose and eye contact. you may want to clean up the droppings on the perch

[Loi Nguyen]

David, I'm so glad you like it and thank you for introducing me to this species. I was hoping to see chicks, but didn't see any yet. Will return in a couple of weeks.

Arash, good idea about cleaning up the perch.

Yes, those eyes are amazing and seeing the sunrise in them is so cool.

thank you everyone for your kind comments.

loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, nice work and interesting to compare with our Little owls. Can sympathise with light, but the 1DX is great for this. The eyes are like dinner plates, very cool. If on the RAW can you look at the yellow and see if it's smooth, ours are like onion skin made up of layers that you can actually see. Personally I would like a little more of the perch below.

We can do a comparison of the two species later.

TFS
Steve