Short-eared Owl

[gail bisson]

Taken at sunset in Vancouver with the "much maligned" Canon gear!!
I am posting this for Artie who commented on his blog that he had not seen a flight shot from me recently!
Canon 1 DX 600mm and 1.4 x
SS 1/2500 ISO 1250 F 5.6
~65% FF, Nothing added or cloned. Lightened the shadowed wing and owl right eye slightly.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks.
Gail
PS. Now that I see this posted I should move the owl to the left in the frame.

[Mike Poole]

Hi Gail,

Another great capture, my prediction about your post-retirement quality of shots seems to be coming true. I only wish I was as good at predicting lottery numbers!

Anyway, the shot. I agree with your comment about it being placed a little further over to the left, especially with the way the eyes are looking. It may be the light, and it may be accurate to how it was at the time, but the blacks just look a little heavy to me, certainly darker than the ones we see this side of the pond.

Other than that, a great stare, and a good wing position, against a pretty much perfect BG, top notch work again.

Mike

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Beautiful Colors.

Nice Light and the I like the head postion.

I wish I could photograph these owls some day.

Thanks for sharing.

[Isaac Grant]

I have seen so many of these this year and not a single one came with 150 feet! Maybe next year...

I love the pose you have here and the background is great. I agree with Mike that the blacks look a little heavy but that may just be from the low light. Maybe you could try lifting the exposure a bit and lowering the contrast and see if that helps. Also I would for sure move the bird over as you suggested. I am not sure if it is a function of the low light not showing the feather details but the face does not seem tack sharp to me. But again I am well aware of how fine the feathers are on these owls and they just do not show well in these types of situations.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A good capture Gail but I feel there is much more to be had.. The image is a little heavy, was it underexposed significantly?

[William Dickson]

A wee bit more brightness here, whether it be the blacks or whites or exposure, or all three, and I reckon you will have a great looking image.

Well done Gail, another great capture.

Will

[Bill Dix]

Sweet capture, Gail. Great oncoming look. Yes to the comments above including yours: a slight move to the left and just a bit of experimenting with exposure and/or shadow.

[gail bisson]

Well, I deserve to be chastised for my poor and lazy PP . I went back to the RAW and yes it was underexposed by a half a stop and I did not even adjust the exposure on the RAW. My bad.
Anyway, here is my redo with exposure corrected, shadows lifted a bit more and more sharpening on the face.
Thanks for all the correct and accurate comments!

[Mike Poole]

Much nicer to my eyes at least

Mike

[arash_hazeghi]

like the wing position and the BG, the head looks soft to my eye and some noise has crept in the underlings. the warm cast is a bit too strong for my taste. I had fun with these owl, I was getting them full frame at 400-500mm so I think you need a new set of boots from Canadian tier :D

[gail bisson]

Those owls must like you better than me!! Actually they did come closer but when they did, the head was always turned the wrong way...

[Isaac Grant]

Gail don't feel bad, they like me even less! I get the tail end at 100 yards if I'm lucky, and into the sun as well

[Juan Tolentino]

Great looking image Gail (as always). I hope to have the opportunity to photograph these owls one day. Thank you for sharing.

[Dorian Anderson]

I love the look and the lighting on this Gail. Rework looks really good with the boosted light and the golden glow. Head isn't tack sharp
but it's so close so as to be a non-issue for me. The look is killer.

[David Salem]

The Repost is a nice improvement to a very cool capture that I am very envious of.
Lots of owl species with lots of nice scenes and great flight poses too!! I'm definitely going to Vancouver next year. Race you there��

[Jonathan Ashton]

It still looks heavy to me Gail, tricky lighting, - WDYT?

[gail bisson]

It still looks heavy to me Gail, tricky lighting, - WDYT?

Thanks for this Jonathan. I like your repost and I think that something in between your post and my repost would be perfect. This was taken minutes before sunset so the light was very warm. I think the blacks re definitely better.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, excellent head on capture here, and love the view of the face. I really like this flight pose, clean BG and lovely warm light. I prefer your post in pane #8.