Barred-owl

[allanrube]

This beauty has been living on Plum Island in Massachusetts. It was watching a vole which it swoped and eat a moment later.


Nikon D4s, 800mm with 1.25 tc. 1/125/ f7.1 iso 180

[Mike Herdman]

Beautiful bird...but the feather details seems a little flat to me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Allan, quite the encounter you had here! The owl looks quite concentrated on the vole. Nice light and good BG. I find the details a bit soft as posted, perhaps a resizing issue. I also wonder what caused the reflected pale circles in the eyes? Did you have time to take some verticals too?

[Marina Scarr]

Lucky you to get this close to this stunner, Allan! I noticed the owl was a bit soft and when I looked at your settings, I wondered why the ISO 180? My go to ISO is 800 which would have allowed you more speed and even more DOF had you gone higher than 800. I think if you gave the facial disc some sharpening, you would definitely improve the image b/c the feathers near the beak have detail. I am also curious about the eyes?

[Randy Stout]

Allan:

Lovely bird, well exposed. Yes, a little soft. I would think that with that focal length, a higher ISO and shutter speed combo would have served you well. Since he is a resident, hopefully you will get some more chances.

Cheers

Randy

[allanrube]

Thanks for the comments. I don't know how the eyes got this look.

I don't think I could do much with dof in this one as the 800mm lens has very little dof close up, even at f/13.