Little Owl - 'Scruffy'

[Steve Kaluski]

OK, back to one of my favourite subjects, the Little Owl. This is 'Scruffy' an owl that was suffering from a form of parasite, but somehow gained the help of 'Torn eye' (another LO) who helped to feed the owl, a very usual situation as the owl was not from a brood.

Can't do much about the brighter HL's LHS, as the backdrop is a hedge.

I know folk won't like the 'perch', but these Owls reside in and around farm land and there is an old trailer under the Willow tree they live in, so for them it's natural and offers a great lookout point.

Thanks to those who commented or viewed the last posting

Steve

Subject: Little Owl (Athene noctua)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark III
Lens: EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXT
Exposure: 1/1000s at f/8 ISO2500
Original format: Landscape, very slight crop almost FF
Shooting: LV Electronic silent mode
Processed via: LRCC 9.4 & PSCC2020

Note: The subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalisations) in the capture of this image.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Processing spot on and I don't mind the perch one bit, the Little owl is shown well. The pose - well if the expected "head turn" was available I am sure you would have posted it!! ... we get what we are given.
So far so good, I am not too crazy about the OOF fence and the highlights top left corner, I feel the greens/highlights could perhaps be fixed to some extent with Frequency Separation or similar..... but still stuck with the OOF fence.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks Jon,

The pose - well if the expected "head turn" was available I am sure you would have posted it!!

Indeed Jon, but I question it sometimes because I feel the only reason you have that is due to the shutter going off and the subjects attention is drawn? Here my presence is not of any concern to the subject.

I am not too crazy about the OOF fence and the highlights top left corner, I feel the greens/highlights could perhaps be fixed to some extent with Frequency Separation or similar.

The fence is part of the old wooden trailer, slowly being taken over by the vegetation.

Frequency separation???? - Please expand

[dankearl]

Perch is manmade and what is it is... no eye contact and bad BG is the problem....

[Paul Burdett]

This works for me as is...I really like the "environmental" aspect here. Not every bird has to be on a perfect perch...there's nothing wrong with this one, and I really like the flowers in the foreground. I do admit that my eye is drawn first to the OOF highlights, but that's a small nit here. TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Steve, to be honest with you mate this isn't whiskey for me...no eye contact and the perch plus the BG...not your usual standard

Cheers

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Arash, yes a marmite image, but Paul hit ‘the nail on the head’ in his summing up.

Eye contact, what do we really mean by this? I do like ‘head on’ in wildlife as it does engage with the viewer, but sometimes not having ‘eye contact’ I think isn’t a bad thing, as I said before, my presence has not disturb the subject, however… I take your point.

Regarding the ‘perch’ this is on farm land and so the Owl makes no discerning choice in what it uses to gain elevation and this is a disused trailer left in the field, if I can access the image I sent to Jon I will attach, however like the majority of Avian postings, I’m not putting up the best branch or stick, with the most idyllic backdrop, this is as is, warts and all, and so keeping it real or as close to nature as possible is what I wanted to do here and no baiting!!!! Yes, I could look for the ideal branch, place it with the most gorgeous of backgrounds, placed a bowl of food down and sat there - just to go click, but who’s fooling who here, I then have tampered/manipulated the capture to where for me it’s lost it’s warts, but then it perhaps makes for a more pleasing shot???? Hope this makes sense and explains my rational.

[Steve Kaluski]

Arash, although I posted this a while back, this might give an insight to the location and the old, disused trailer which has been reclaimed by nature.

[David Roach]

Love your PP, the fluffy subject (which I remember from before) and the flower head. The BG, not so much. TFS

[William Dickson]

I see where you are coming from here Steve.....The weathered 'perch' looks ok for me....If it was a fence post, with this much weathering, folk would think it looks good....Processed well as usual, love the colours throughout the image...

Will

[Steve Kaluski]

I see where you are coming from here Steve....

Cheers Will.

[John Mack]

The lace in the foreground is nice. Some will love, others will hate. I don't mind it a bit.