Barn owl

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hand held ISO 400 Manual mode 1.2500 sec f5.6, unfortunately the plumage is wet.
All C&C welcome

[Mike Poole]

Your best one yet Jon, love the stare, and the water on the feathers shows how he can't always have that silent flight, typical of our weather over the last few days - I bet there are a fair few voles thankful about that!

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jonathan, excellent, love the diagonal angle and the wings outstretch, but the 'icing' is the HA, looking to you, nice one. The wet plumage adds IMHO. The blue of the sky with the hint of hedgerow typifies well the scene. Nicely processed with great detail, but I wonder if the darker 'blob' on the LHS was removed if it may make a difference, WDYT?

TFS
Steve

[Karen Pleasant]

Jonathan, what a striking image! Perfect wing position and excellent HA, with those eyes looking right at you. Beautifully captured and processed. What a pleasure to see this image!
TFS!

[Bill Dix]

Shows the power of persistence. They keep getting better. Nice look on the well-lit bird; good comp and flight position.

[Diane Miller]

All said above -- the wet feathers add some nice detail, for my taste.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image, Jonathan. Thank you for sharing.

[Don Lacy]

the look makes this for me, well done

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Super HA and eye contact. Nice wing position and BG too. TFS.

[adrian dancy]

You have nailed this bird very nicely IMHO. The bird is nicely lit and I see absolutely nothing wrong with its breast feathers being wet.

[keith mitchell]

Looks like it has dropped into wet grass a few times Jonathan it's hard work for them in bad weather but does add a natural look to this cracking image, give yourself a good pat on the back, well done with this one.

Keith.

[Satish Ranadive]

Gorgeous image. Spectacular flight shot. Rest has been said.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much for your comments everyone.

[Marina Scarr]

The plumage might be wet which I have no issue with, but this one is surely your best yet. Love that flight pose and the owl looking directly at you.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks again everyone, BTW the owl was looking at me because the shutter is so darned noisy on the 1DX, once he had clocked me that was it. I have recently been trying to get the bird without the TC, this means hoping he comes closer and closer then praying I have the opportunity to get a few shots before he glides off to the other side of the field.

[Diane Miller]

Doesn't the 1DX have a silent shutter mode? (5D3 and 7D2 do.) It slows down the burst rate but may be worth it if noise is a factor. But then a look at you isn't so bad...

[Jonathan Ashton]

Doesn't the 1DX have a silent shutter mode? (5D3 and 7D2 do.) It slows down the burst rate but may be worth it if noise is a factor. But then a look at you isn't so bad...

I think there is a mode but from what I have heard it is not that quiet, I am not sure if you need to use it with Live view. I will have another look at it but if the owl hears it - well its goodbye Ollie.

[Diane Miller]

On the 5D3 and 7D2, there is a button next to the small screen on top of the camera that lets you cycle through the drive modes, such as single frame, burst and high speed burst. There are two "silent shutter" modes, for single and burst. But the silent mode is only "quieter", and the 1D series may be set up differently.

[David Salem]

Much better than the last one. Great looking stare and wing position. Nice that at least half the face is in the light but I think you could easily lighten up the right side of the face and make it pop more. Nice capture.
Keep shooting this guy, I think you will get a real killer frame of him if you stay persistent and he stays hunting in the same location. Good luck

[Loi Nguyen]

Jon, I'm late to the party, but love this one. Your composition is excellent with the vertical crop here with the placement of the bird and the green BG anchored the image. Not an easy to photograph species in such lovely light. Well done. Loi