Short eared owl in pine

[Grace Scalzo]

Very blessed to have a couple of these beauties on Long Island this winter. They usually fly after dark, so this was an unusual opportunity as they came out about 5 minutes before sunset.

1/250, f8, iso1600
Canon 1dx, 600f4 + 20.tc (1200mm) + rrs tripod

[adrian dancy]

Excellent work here. Pretty much picture perfect. I do not mind that there is no eye contact.

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you kindly, Adrian. Nor do I. Not everything is about me. :) In fact, I love that he was relaxed enough to not be focused on me at all.

[keith mitchell]

Grace no problem with the eye contact in fact I prefer it the way it is, like everything about this image, the mask on the birds face is lovely ,beautiful clarity for the time of day, excellent work.

These over this side do hunt in the afternoon and into the evening so we may be a bit spoilt.
Keith.

[Steven Major]

I like it. Tho...the background...is doing the bird & tree no favors. It looks man made or from a different time of day.

[Grace Scalzo]

Steven, the background is a very distant hill and that's the color that it is as the sun is nearing its set. Nothing man made about it.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grace, pretty cool image, nicely composed with lovely light, I just feel the blacks look choked, might be worth a quick check on the histogram in the RAW?

TFS
Steve

[John Rowell]

Beautiful job, Grace. The light is beautiful, as are the dark, rich colors, just as you'd expect at sunset. Framing really sets off the owl on his perch. I like this one a lot.

[Glenn Conlan]

I love it! has a emotional feeling to it, very nice

[Bill Dix]

The perfect tree ornament. What a beauty, Grace. I love the bird, tree, light, background. Nicely done.

[Karl Egressy]

Great opportunity beautiful light, perch and the Owl looks great.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Grace, lovely image in beautiful light. I'm with Steve on the black. Also I'd suggest taking a sliver off the left and bottom. Well done. Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

very pretty Grace, excellent handling of long focal length!

[Eric Dienesch]

I like it..
especially the light conditions !

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot Grace I like the scenario, my first thought was perhaps the dark are a little too dark, I would also consider a little additional sharpening to the owl just to see if any more detail is forthcoming.
Many recent post in the Wildlife forum increasingly show the benefit of faster shutter speed and I think a faster shutter speed would have provided grater detail in the owl's plumage, don't misunderstand me I think it is a good image but 1200mm and 1/250 sec is not generally a good combination though I admit freely if the opportunity arose I would try slow as well as fast shutter speeds if possible.

[Grace Scalzo]

Replying to a few suggestions above. The blacks are borderline tight here...not in the version that I have prepared for print. When I turned this tiff into a jpeg, two problems popped up. One was color which I corrected before posting here (to the jpeg), the other was the darks. I'm not going to spend time fixing them on a jpeg, sorry. With regard to Jonathan's points above regarding sharpness and increasing shutter speed. This image is not sharp like most of my work for one reason. There is indeed a bit of motion blur. If you look at the chest of the bird, you will see feathers blowing. Is it sharp enough for a nice print. I do indeed believe so. Now , what steps could I have taken to increase my shutter speed and try and reduce any chance of blur. Only one here, increase my iso. At 1200 mm, opening up beyond f8 is not possible. I have seen people push this camera body to higher iso's. I rarely find that I like the results, for birds. Mammals with their fur a different story. Feather detail gets lost, things look too smooth once NR is applied. (I do recall a harrier of Arash's shot at iso3200 that is an exception) We pixel peep here on this forum and while I do agree that we learn from it, I sometimes have to step back and create an image that I feel is beautiful and memory making, making the best of a difficult opportunity, and enjoying the experience, despite not adhering 100% to BPN's high standards. Please do not read this and interpret it as an excuse for less than optimal work, just sharing my thoughts and process with you.

[christopher galeski]

Very nice Grace,great BG,love the light on the Owl,nice perch.TFS.

[Mike Poole]

Beautiful shot Grace, you made the most of the situation. Comments about ISO noted and getting this IQ with that rig and 1/250th deserves some credit.

Mike

[Jim Crosswell]

A real beauty Grace! Great light, pose, perch, BG and composition.

[John Robinson]

Nice to see one not on a fence post !! Grand shot Grace
John

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Exceptionally beautiful image, Grace. Love the light on this great looking owl. Like the perch and the BG as well.


Geoffrey

[Joe Subolefsky]

Really like this one a lot great job.

[Marina Scarr]

Love this portrait. The light is lovely as is the "perch" and BG. You must have been so excited when you spotted this owl!!