I am fortunate to live in an urban area with outstanding small pockets of habitat for wildlife.
These Owls are living in the center of Portland, Oregon in a small wetland area
adjacent to my Duck pond/ garden which has nesting Eagles, Beavers, Otters, etc.
The parents are year round residents. There are 3 juveniles this year.
They live in the geographical center of an urban area of a million people.
Finding the Owls in the woods in the early morning is as much fun as photographing them...
A nice look at this Barred Owl. Anterior plumage is quite detailed and sharp yet the surrounding white feathers on the head or a little soft. Perhaps that F5 .6 you would have more detail and still have a nice background. Looks like you were pretty close.
You caught a lovely whimsical look here Dan--owls can be rather blank faced sometimes but this fellow has character. If there's any out of focus feel to the eye sockets it's very minor to my eye and I suspect it's just an optical illusion created by the way the filaments criss-cross in there----- it's right on on for the filaments over the beak, which is where my eye wants to go anyway. I really like the perch detail.
Love the bird, the image, and the sharpness. Do you have more room on the right?
with love, a
ps:lucky guy!
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Such a fun subject! I wish you had a bit more DOF across the bird, but it looks like you were struggling with light. How doe D500 do at ISO 1600? That woulda got you to f/5 for more detail. Crop is very tight above and below. Can you go vertical, like 8X10?