The Prize

[Loi Nguyen]

Taking photos of Burrowing Owl in flight can be a frustrating experience with more miss than hit. This image of a Burrowing Owl chick carrying a piece of clay in its beak is one of my best in the 4 years that I have been photographing this species.

1DX
500f4
1/3200
f8
ISO-3200
HH
Large crop, about 37% of FF. It seems to me that when an image is sharp, you can crop a lot without losing much IQ.

Thank you for commenting on my images. Much appreciated.

Loi

[Randy Stout]

Loi:

Neat pose, with clay bit, complementary colors in the bg. IQ held up pretty darn well for such a big crop, and that ISO. Good angle in the frame.

The image reads just a bit bright on my monitor, but I am sure in your location it is very bright.

Cheers

Randy

[Tim Foltz]

Unique shot with the clay, sharp, nice BG, but I might have cloned out the brown along the bottom right.

-Tim

[Loi Nguyen]

Randy, you are absolutely right about the image a little too bright. I should resist the temptation to work on an image on an uncalibrated monitor. Here is a repost.

Tim, I actually like to leave a little bit of the ground behind to show how low the owl was flying. Losing that ground would make a very different image. Also I personally prefer not to clone in general.

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice light and wing position! sharp details, the small load adds more interest.bummer about the band, I'd try to remove it in PS

repost fixed the brightness issue

TFS

[Loi Nguyen]

very nice light and wing position! sharp details, the small load adds more interest.bummer about the band, I'd try to remove it in PS

repost fixed the brightness issue

TFS

Thank you Arash. I did give removing the band a try, but the two legs are just too close to one another. Made it worse than leaving it alone. Loi

[David Salem]

Looks fantastic Loi!! Your best in flight of these guys to date!! Great detail and colors and I like the BG color. Well captured

I did this repost in just a few seconds. Removed band using the clone tool, removed the brown on the bottom as it didn't do anything for the image IMO and I adjusted the blacks in levels a bit further to give it a bit more detail. Play with the clone tool more and get more comfortable with your cloning skills. See ya soon

[arash_hazeghi]

Thank you Arash. I did give removing the band a try, but the two legs are just too close to one another. Made it worse than leaving it alone. Loi

you just don't know how to do it

Dave beat me to it, excellent job! it would be a shame to leave the band in for such nice shot

[Ritesh Nangare]

What an interesting shot this is , the clay in beak is an interesting subject to have thats an unique shot to have in collection , the bird beautiful sharp with the great light and beautiful multi colour BG....

Loved it totally ......

TFS....

[David Cowling]

Your persistence with these birds is really paying off. Great IQ for such a large crop and high ISO, getting things right in camera gives so much scope for post capture editing. Agree with David about cloning out the light brown lower R/H and blue T/R hand but respect your reason for not doing so. Very interesting that the bird is carrying a piece of clay, is it doing this for a reason or just because it can?

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Dave, you did such a great job on removing the band! Did you use the patch tool?

As for the piece of clay, the chicks are very curious at this stage and they pounce on everything. Clay, rock, etc. is fair play. No real reason other than practicing survivor skills.

[David Salem]

"Hi Dave, you did such a great job on removing the band! Did you use the patch tool?"

Loi, I used the clone stamp tool. I have been using the tool for many years now and I do everything freehand with it. I don't use any content aware or and auto filler just the clone stamp. Once you learn how to use it, and where to take things from, you will be able to tackle minor cleanups like this in a flash, and with confidence. If you come out this winter maybe we can do some PP and cloning work together.
See ya soon

[Loi Nguyen]

Dave, sounds good. See you this winter. Loi