Welcome Hugh. I love these birds and have posted a few this year. I think your details look very good. Pose is nice although a little more direct eye contact would have added to the impact of the image. In a perfect world a less busy background or more separation from the background would be better but not mandatory of course. Very nice first post. Only thing I would add is that you easily could have upped the ISO to get a faster shutter speed and still been fine. It worked out fine here but I don't recommend shooting at 1/125 for birds.
Wow, very nice! Quite lucky with the 1/125 secs shutter speed as Isaac mentioned and I don't really mind the bird not staring down right the barrel but I do wish a little more subject-BG separation. Of course that is not always possible. I would love to have this frame myself! :D Congrats Hugh!
This is a gorgeous image of a bird I long to see. Settings notwithstanding, the details and exposure look great to me. I find the background habitat adds to, rather than detracting from, the image. Just my humble opinion. And the amount of eye contact is just fine in my book. I would love to have this one in my portfolio. If I were to nitpick, my personal preference would be for a sliver more room on top.
Hi Hugh, Welcome to BPN, i look forward to your participation... What a bird and your image is done well. Exposure, detail look good, of course we would all like less intersecting branch congestion, but thats just not where the owl perched. Wonderful capture, keep em coming.
Hey there Hugh, welcome to BPN! Gorgeous bird. I love the image quality - nice details and overall sharpness on the subject. I'm OK with the BG and overall setting too, but I may have taken a step to the left at time of capture, if possible, to prevent the twig from being so close to the tail. Hope to see more from you!
Simply a fine capture of a most striking owl, Hugh. Like the intense stare, and sharp feather detail. Looks as if you may have gotten some very nice reflected fill light from snow covered ground.