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Thread: Dancing in the Rain

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    Default Dancing in the Rain

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    We were photographing this Burrowing Owl on an unusually cloudy sky at Salton Sea this morning when he started spreading his wings. I thought he was going to take off, so let off a series of shots, but no, he and his mate were literally dancing in the rain. The severe drought in California this year had impacted the owl population in a big way, and this family is a survivors. The owls were spreading their wings and tails, turning this way and that to make sure that all parts of their feathers got the water. It wasn't much of a rain really, but droplets fell for a few minutes and wet the dirt and the owls.

    1DX
    500f4 II + 1.4X III
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    ISO-3200
    Beanbag over car window
    Cropped slightly to remove the white wash on the rock on the Left corner and all around ever so slightly for balance.

    Your comments are much appreciated.

    Thank you

    Loi

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    Excellent !Superb Owl shot. One of the most attention grabbing seen on this site I reckon. I might sugest removing the darker secon branch
    . Great stuff
    JohnR

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Awesome behaviour you witnessed and photographed here - you must have been thrilled! The eyes pop so nicely, it's really fun that it was facing directly towards you. If anything I do wish the BG was thrown even more out of focus but really with such a magnificent attention-grabbing pose who is looking at that anyway :-)

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    I love the pose, never seen a wet BO! good details and eye contact. the main issue here is the busy/harsh BG which distracts from the owl. I wonder if you can get the vehicle closer and use a bare lens at close range to blur the harsh BG.

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    A stunning capture Loi - you even got some rain-drops! What you have is superb, never mind what might have been. Congratulations on a wonderful picture. Regards, Ian.

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    The pose you captured is stupendous. One of the nicest, coolest poses I have seen for a burrowing owl.
    I think that it is worthwhile working on the BG by cloning out the branch coming out of left edge of the frame and the reddish OOF branch to the right of the left wing.
    I would then apply a bit of a blur to the BG and reduce the contrast of the BG selectively
    Even with the BG as is it is a terrific image,
    gail

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    Hi Loi, what a fantastic pose with the outspread wings, and just love that direct eye contact - those eyes really pop. Im fine with the BG, but a little work on it would raise this to another level.

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    It is a great shot, I would prefer that the branch in the lower right corner did not intersect the wing, but that is very minor. When you get a great rare pose like this, sometimes everything doesn't go the way you want. I think the DOF is great for sharpness on the bird while still blowing the background out. Great light on the pupils. A really fine image.

    Walker

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    Hi Everyone, thank you for your comments. It was a thrilled to see the owls displaying this behavior indeed. I had not seen or read about it before.

    Arash, I couldn't get any closer as there was a deep canal between the car and the owl. With the 1.4X added, I was stuck at F5.6 and the owl was fairly close to the other side of the canal. I had images of the other owl with better BG and habitat and will post later, but the pose and eye contact is the reason I chose this one to post first.

    John and Gail, I think your suggestions of cloning out some of the distracting elements in the BG will make the image better for sure, but it will also make the image less authentic. So, I think I won't delete anything from this image.

    Walker, I did review many frame to get the eye contact, the wing spread and tail spread, the rain drops, and the wings not touching or intersecting the branches. This one is the one with most of the elements except for the intersecting branch on the RHS, that's Mother Nature.

    I will try to apply some more NR and may be some blur to the BG, but I have not had good luck with blur before. Every time I did it, someone would point out that it is "too obvious" :). Would appreciate some tips on applying the blur in CS6!

    Thanks again.

    Loi

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    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Loi Nguyen View Post

    I will try to apply some more NR and may be some blur to the BG, but I have not had good luck with blur before. Every time I did it, someone would point out that it is "too obvious" :). Would appreciate some tips on applying the blur in CS6!

    Thanks again.

    Loi
    you cannot create the effect of lens bokeh blur with Photoshop, it will look unnatural to the trained eye. I would just apply NR and leave it there.
    cloning out the many distracting elements such as the rocks and the greens before applying NR might ease the harshness of the BG a bit.
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    Amazing pose and stare, Loi.

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    Such a captivating image Loi. Just love the pose and look in his/her eyes! Super stuff. If anything, the BG is a bit busy and you could clone out a couple of distracting branches (if that sits well with you) but the impact of the image makes up for these and more. Well done!

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    Lifetime Member David Salem's Avatar
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    This is totally cool Loi. I love the wanting to bathe pose. My falcons and even my parrot do this exact same behavior when it rains. They obviously want to get their feathers wet to act as a bath.
    The eye contact is riveting and the detail looks great. I personally dont mind the BG as my eyes go right to the owl and it's details. Well done.
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    A stunning pose, & by far outweighs any distractions, great work capturing this one Loi.

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    The pose is incredible; BG is indeed harsh. Still, it is a great image, eyes and pose draw the attention of the viewer. Nice one.

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