Florida Burrowing Owl (adult male)

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image recently on Marco Island, Florida. Two things I found interesting about this image. First how light brown the feathers are compared to the adult female which spends most of the time in the nest/burrow while the male perches outside in the sun. Second how much larger the pupil is in the eye that is shaded by the eye brow. Just a side thought... the typical adult male Florida Burrowing Owl is about 9 inches tall (23cm), this image may be larger than the owl. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 260mm (390mm FFE)
1/1000 F/8 Matrix Metering +2/3 EV ISO 500 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
Cropped from horizontal to vertical for composition and presentation

[gail bisson]

Good observations Joe.
Good solid image of a B.O.
I find the feathers a bit crunchy around the face and would back off on the sharpening in this area.
I find your comp a bit awkward. I think I would prefer tighter, if the IQ can stand it) or looser to include the feet.
I might reduce the overall brightness a tiny little bit as well,
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Gail, good to have you back. The comp shows my indecision on what to do with the image. It was on one of those ugly crosses that the owl watchers put for the male to perch on. I tried to find a comp without the post but the image became unbalanced and awkward. Your assessment confirmed what I was feeling. Here is the same bird captured at 400mm rather than the 260mm of the previous posted image.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I prefer the head angle of the repost but prefer the complete in-focus of the full face of the OP (but yes to backing off the sharpening on that one). Good clean BG.

[David Salem]

The repost looks much better because the eye is less shaded. Nice frame