African barred owlet

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

Just got back from Mozambique and South Africa -- some great sightings and tons of cool birds. Since it was my first time in Africa, pretty much everything was a life for me which is pretty fun, but leads to tons of photos to cull. This was one of my favorite sightings from the trip however. Taken about an hour before sunset. Slight crop, NR on bird and BG, nothing added or cloned. I left the branch on the left as I thought it balanced the image, and the bit of greenery added.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC
Specs: 1/500 f/5.6 ISO 2,800

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Bill Dix]

What a wonderful shot, Alex. Great soft light and excellent detail, stunning look-back pose. If you had been doing any other cloning, you could certainly remove the oof twig behind the bird's tail. But it's great to have an image where nothing is added or cloned. Leave it as shot. Congratulations. You'll have weeks if not months of files to go through, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[gail bisson]

Go buy yourself some cushions for your computer chair because you will be doing lots of sitting as you go through your images!
I love the sunlit BG and the direct gaze this little guy gave you.
Excellent DOF for 5.6 and no noise at ISO 2800 so great PP work. Great IQ.
The comp is fine but if you have lots of pixels I could see a vertical with the left tree branch eliminated.That would involve cloning out the little branch and leaf on the right of the branch.
The OOF branch to the left of the owl is a bit unfortunate and I would clone it out in a New York minute but I understand completely if you don't want to clone.
Gail

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Alex, glad to hear all went well and SA delivered for you and everything we spoke about worked out. I also hope you had the encounters and more that you wanted, but never a good thing to have an itinerary.

If this is towards sunset it all looks a bit light & flat, I would have expected the BKG to a lot more warmer, throwing the subject to being backlit???? I think also you could afford to loose about an inch off the RHS to throw the subject a bit more off centre.

Take your time to edit and do it with sharp eyes and a clear head. Look forward to seeing more, hopefully in Wildlife too.

Cheers
Steve

PS Did you mange to hook up with Stu B?

[annmpacheco]

Hi Alex, wonderful frame down the barrel at ya! Nice and sharp, interesting perch and terrific colors. I'd be tempted to selectively prune some branches! Looking forward to many more from your trip!

[William Dickson]

Beautiful looking frame Alex...I would remove the OOF branch on the LHS. I could see a vertical crop as well. Nice one.

Will

[John Mack]

Very nice view of this owlet. The bird is shade and background in sun are great. Like the composition as is. Glad you had a good trip hope to see more.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Beautiful Image. I love the tones in the image. As the subject is in shade, I would have played with white balance to enhance the background colors a little bit.

I would have cloned out the branch as well.

TFS

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all, much appreciated. I took some verticals as well, so will look at those. Can play with the BG colors and crop a bit. The only part of the bird that was directly being hit by light was the white bit of the tail feathers -- go figure from ~2 o clock back right.

Steve, unfortunately didn't get a chance to, got caught up with last minute planning and some travel changes, and then had the outage here, and then was off. Hopefully if I go back, next time can be a bit more organized earlier

[Steve Kaluski]

I took some verticals as well, so will look at those.

Good call Alex, always best to work in the right format, you loose so much by cropping and makes you sloppy.

Steve, unfortunately didn't get a chance to, got caught up with last minute planning and some travel changes, and then had the outage here, and then was off. Hopefully if I go back, next time can be a bit more organized earlier

Always the way Alex, but as you say, you will be even more organised for next time, plus it's always good to leave something behind as then, you have to go back to photograph it. Give me a heads up next time as although its a small world it's surprising how many times you bump into someone without knowing. Hope it's given you the bug for the Country.