Shy but Curious - Eastern Screech Owlets

[Marina Scarr]

These Screech Owlets were a bit shy in the beginning as evidenced in this image. They quickly became curious of their surroundings outside of the cavity and spent hours sitting at the edge of the cavity at night. In this image, I would say they are nearing 3 weeks old. There was a third owlet which was younger than these 2 and had more whitish fuzz on its head. Much to my dismay, the entrance to the cavity wasn't large enough for all 3 to roost comfortably.

I found processing these images fairly tricky. Since these images were taken at night, it was difficult to decide how they looked best.

Canon 1D4, Canon 500L
F18, 1/200sec, ISO 320, manual mode
2 flash set up
Jobu head, Feisol tripod

C & C always most welcomed and much appreciated.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Nice owlets and framing. It´s good to see you trying different strokes in your daily workflow. If mine, I would brighten things a little and would try to fix the red eye on the bird on LRC.

[Binu John]

Excellent use of flash! I really like the vertical composition, colors and texture!

[Ian Wilson]

Hi Marina, Great subject, I like it very much. I would prefer to see a little 'eye work' to darken the pupils and, if appropriate for this species, a little more yellow in the irises. You do not mention the flash output power but I am guessing there may be scope to open the aperture more to reduce the effect of diffraction which I believe is hurting the resolution of fine detail in your image. If you get another chance, try to open up to f/11 or a bit wider if you can. I also suggest you lower the ISO down to ISO 100 and get correct exposure by adjusting the flash output power down to say 1/8 of full power and if that is still too much light, keep reducing the flash power to 1/16 and so on until you get the exposure you want. Regards, Ian

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marina, comp works well, and I really like how both owlets seemed 'joined' together with their plumage. Both well camouflaged from their surroundings of the tree bark, and another vote for reducing the reds in the eye of the lower owlet.

[vishaljadhav]

I love the way its captured and framed
the superb camouflage gives a illusion of the eyes been of the tree :)
looks nice

[Andy Shepherd]

Agree with the guys re the camouflage, the owlets really do blend in very well. Slight nit re the eyes has been covered, but it's not a deal breaker for me. A well thought out image, Marina.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

What a cute image Marina! I love it. Beautifully composed and well executed pic! Congrats!

[Diane Miller]

I don't think they could look any better -- perfect lighting and exposure, as far as I can see. A great capture!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

A very unique image. Interesting perspective and great execution. I'd fix the red-eye on the lower owlet. Excellent work Marina.

[gail bisson]

I can't decide how I feel about this image.
It is a difficult image to interpret and my eye ( and/or brain) takes a while to figure out exactly what I am looking at. Part of me wanted to give up but I kept on looking and once I figured out the angle you were shooting at and the position of the owlets within the cavity, I quite like it.
The best part is the swirling pattern of the wood around the cavity. Lots of nice textures here.
Your comp is well thought out and I really like the way the beak of the lower owlet is hanging over the edge of the cavity.
I would fix the red eye of the lower chick.
A difficult image to initially draw the viewer in, but for those who take their time looking at it, a pleasure to view with lots to like,
Gail

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular artistic image.

Regards,
Satish.

[Andrew Robinson]

A wonderful image and so different. Love the way the bark compliments their plumage and the lower owlet seems to be hanging on for grim death by its beak!! Love it.

Andrew

[Marina Scarr]

You do not mention the flash output power but I am guessing there may be scope to open the aperture more to reduce the effect of diffraction which I believe is hurting the resolution of fine detail in your image. If you get another chance, try to open up to f/11 or a bit wider if you can. I also suggest you lower the ISO down to ISO 100 and get correct exposure by adjusting the flash output power down to say 1/8 of full power and if that is still too much light, keep reducing the flash power to 1/16 and so on until you get the exposure you want. Regards, Ian

Hello Ian: Thank your input. It's always appreciated. I frankly am not sure what power I was using, although I think it was 1/4 power on the flash closest to the cavity and 1/8 from my bracket. The reason I chose F18 was b/c the adults were coming in to feed, and I wanted to make sure that they were in focus as they were in front of my focusing point. Also, I was less than 20 feet from the cavity at 500mm, so I needed all the DOF I could get. My RAW image is full of feather details. Maybe I didn't sharpen it enough.

Unfortunately my brand new ProMaster flash transmitter died after only one night, so I was left finishing up this shoot with only one flash which was a bummer.

[Ian Wilson]

Hello Ian: Thank your input. It's always appreciated. I frankly am not sure what power I was using, although I think it was 1/4 power on the flash closest to the cavity and 1/8 from my bracket. The reason I chose F18 was b/c the adults were coming in to feed, and I wanted to make sure that they were in focus as they were in front of my focusing point. Also, I was less than 20 feet from the cavity at 500mm, so I needed all the DOF I could get. My RAW image is full of feather details. Maybe I didn't sharpen it enough.

Unfortunately my brand new ProMaster flash transmitter died after only one night, so I was left finishing up this shoot with only one flash which was a bummer.

Hi Marina, Thanks for taking the trouble to set my mind at rest on this set-up - a perfectly reasonable strategy. Actually, after I posted my comments I thought maybe you were much closer than I imagined but with parent birds coming in, it all makes sense, you really did need all the DoF you could get. Regards, Ian

[arash_hazeghi]

very cute Marina!