Backlit Barn Owl (c)

[Bill Dix]

This was shot at a Raptor Free Flight demonstration, so although he's flying free he's technically a captive bird. Still, I was thrilled to see a number of gorgeous raptors and to get a few shots, albeit under difficult conditions. C&C appreciated.

D7000, 500f4 + 1.4, ISO 2000, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual, gitzo and mongoose.

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful flight shot of this rare to see Owl, Bill. Timing was excellent.

[John Robinson]

Ccacking exposure on the whites Bill Like the backdrop too.!
JohnR

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Magnificent flight capture, Bill. An enviable shot this is. The top/back side light is very pleasing particularly for the predominant whites. Great BG too. The dark nub at the curve of the branch caught my eye as did a bit of black fringe along the tail feathers under talons. I also realize and, don't mind one bit is the motion blur which adds to the action. None of this is a deal breaker. I hope you don't mind that I worked on your image a bit sharpening a tad and cloning the dark nub and black line.

Geoffrey

[William Dickson]

Fantastic image Bill. I love the whites against that BG. Great timing, thanks for sharing

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Geoffrey. The nubectomy and extra sharpening are both improvements. Nice cloning work. I wasn't sure when to quit sharpening, but he extra bit helped.

[P-A. Fortin]

Beautiful bird. Great timing on the landing. Might crank up the sharpening a tad on the bird.

[keith mitchell]

Bill the sharpening is something that is always a problem for me, trying to keep the soft feather and natural look of the bird, great the way you have captured this landing pose ,whites look spot on.

Keith.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

One of the most beautiful of birds for me. Great landing pose, lighting is effective.

I wish the mass of the trunk on right wasn't quite as prominent. I know hind sight is 20/20, but a small step to your right to change the shooting angle would have probably reduced the impact of the trunk.

Very nice.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Randy. In theory I agree that the trunk is too prominent. I considered cloning it out and leaving only the curved landing spot, but I sometimes get carried away with cloning, and wanted to present this without any cloning at all. Shooting conditions here were very difficult. Hundreds of people crowded the paths of this multi-acre outdoor site on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and I was squeezed along a railing with no ability to move, alter my POV, choose a better light angle or get my lens on much of the scene because of the bodies in the way. So moving my tripod even a step was out of the question (assuming of course that I would have been able to do so in the split-second after I realized where the bird was going to land). But as an observation of the compositional elements, I completely agree with you. Under these shooting circumstances I was pleased to come away with a few keepers.

[Dumay de Boulle]

I am a fan of your work, nice exposure and the pose is great. The repost pops for more impact. The only thing that surprises me is that no one has mentioned that the critical focus is off. It is not just not critically sharp.
Sorry Bill but this one is a miss I'm afraid.

[Bill Dix]

Here's a repost with the most of the tree cropped/cloned out, and some more sharpening. I agree that it's not razor sharp, but the additional sharpening helps get it close.