Northern Saw-whet Owl

[Raymond Barlow]

Grimsby, Ontario Canada
D300 / 200-400 VR
1/40s f/10.0 at 220.0mm iso200
Tripod, natural light, full frame, slight levels adjustment

probably the easiest image I have had to edit... ever, I sure wish they were all like this.!

I might have cloned out the branch on the llhc, but I decided to leave it as is.

Edit: thanks for the great advice!!




and a third edit, thanks to Axel, and Artie, I did some cropping and further cloning.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the setting and wouldn't clone out anything. I might have put the bird a bit higher and to the right in the frame but like it as is.

[Sudhir Shivaram]

This is a very cute owl. The image grabs the viewers attention in spite of those distractions because of the lovely stare from the owl, which has been very well captured. I am Ok with the image as is, except for that right out of focus branch emerging from the owl's virtual ear.

Rgds,
Sudhir

[carole wiley]

I agree about the branch coming out of the ear. The image is captivating.

[Beth Goffe]

This is a gorgeous little owl! I agree with Axel's comment. Nice image!

[Bruce Enns]

Beautiful image Raymond.

Bruce

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Love everything about this image Raymond and those eyes are just gorgeous. The composition of this image is awesome as if you had just planned it all. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave Phillips]

good one Ray.....cloning that one branch was a good move IMO.
Not only the eyes, but the few needles in front of the owl are "good" elements for depth

[Maxis Gamez]

Man.... what a lovely looking owl.... Excellent re-post

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely with piercing eyes. I could live without the branch but it would take some work to do it well. On the subject of the pine needles, if you had moved your tripod two inches to your right the image would have been better. Anyone know why?

[Harold Davis]

because the pine needles would have perfectly framed his face?

cool image!! love owl eyes and these are great!! nice job on the clone work too.

[Raymond Barlow]

thanks everyone for the cool comments and the help., also, I agree with Axel's issue on the crop., but for this one, I was just too proud of the full frame deal.

Lovely with piercing eyes. I could live without the branch but it would take some work to do it well. On the subject of the pine needles, if you had moved your tripod two inches to your right the image would have been better. Anyone know why?

Thanks Artie.. always a pleasure to read your critique. I have many images of this bird without the branches in front of it, so this one give the bird a little nature cover, hence a more natural look and feel. Moving the tripod to the left would have brought the 2 pine needles to our left in front of the beak area, but also opened the view to the feet/talons, possibly a trade off, but i am happy with my position here.

I was also concerned about the background, the more left I moved, the more of the bright area, urhc, so this was a priority to avoid... hope all this makes sense.. and I am looking forward to reading your futher critique., thanks again.

[Steve Canuel]

Very nice image Ray. Pine needles front and back give it some "depth". Nice subtle improvement on the repost.
Steve

[Raymond Barlow]

I like the setting and wouldn't clone out anything. I might have put the bird a bit higher and to the right in the frame but like it as is.

thanks Axel., amazing how a slight shift in the position of the bird in the frame makes a difference.

As for the hieght of the bird in the frame, I did do a slight crop from the top, as the standard 3x2 format of the D300 does not work very well.

[Raymond Barlow]

Lovely with piercing eyes. I could live without the branch but it would take some work to do it well. On the subject of the pine needles, if you had moved your tripod two inches to your right the image would have been better. Anyone know why?

Thanks again Artie, I remove the one branch llhc, and cropped per Axels suggestion.. Now I think we have it!...??

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The repost looks excellent!

[Raymond Barlow]

The repost looks excellent!

thanks Axel, I really appreciate the help.

[Arthur Morris]

because the pine needles would have perfectly framed his face?

Harold nailed it. Moving two inches to the right would have preserved the natural look while centering the face in a perfect V... Way to go Harold!