Theme Burrowing Owl

[Walker Noe]

Here's another from my local Burrowing Owl spot. Maybe a slightly "boring" shot but I just love these guys. Probably my last shoot with them before I head up to Idaho to begin my senior year of university. . .

Nikon D750
Nikkor 600mm f4 old no VR
1.4x TC II
handheld

f/5.6
1/250
ISO 1600

EDIT: oops, didn't post "theme" as a prefix, accidentally put it in the title. Can a mod fix that?

[Isaac Grant]

Burrowing owls are never boring, especially when you have a direct stare like that and a nice closeup. Wish you had a bit more depth of field on the bird but as I have been to this spot I understand that even at f10 you can not cover the whole bird. Beautiful and complimentary background here as well with a very pleasing color palette. I would apply a touch of NR to the undertail. When you have it going out of the depth of field it is always good to double and triple check to make sure that the out of focus areas don't start getting noisy. I would also add a touch of selective sharpening to the face. Maybe do the face at 50 and .3 just to give it that extra pop. I would be very pleased to have a frame like this, especially before I graduated college!!!

[annmpacheco]

Love the direct stare and the sunset in the eyes! I agree with a bit more work on the face as it looks soft and a bit crunchy. Lovely colors and i look forward to more owls Walker!

[Arthur Morris]

Sweet and very similar to my favorite-ever out of thousands image of this species. The stare and even the near foreground dirt are quite interesting. What was the exact location?

with love, artie

[Walker Noe]

Thanks Isaac, Ann, and Artie. I will rework the face.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks a stack Walker. How far from PHX?

with love, artie

[Daniel Cadieux]

Ooh, I love this! Lovely warm tones throughout. Gotta love that stare.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Perfect pose & stare nicely complemented by the similarly colored background Walker! Love it!

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I love the eyes and the colors palette (warm colors) Everything looks good to me.

Thanks for sharing.

[Dorian Anderson]

A good look at this guy. Would have loved a bit more DOF, but you didn't have the light for it. Warm glow makes up for it.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice portrait showing the typical habitat , love the symmetrical wide open eyes. it's a touch too contrasty on my screen and I also wish for a tad more DOF but judging from your settings it would have been tough

TFS