Whoo..who.who.whoo's looking at me?

[Richard Stern]

This Barred Owl was along a woods road on a recent local Xmas Bird Count. Initially he was looking away, but at the sound of my first shutter click he snapped his head around to look. After several images I left him in peace in the same spot.

D300, Tamron 200-500 from the car - lens resting on the partially open window. Late afternoon. ISO: 800, ShutterSpeedValue: 1/30, ApertureValue: 8.0, Exposure Compensation: 0, MeteringMode: Spot, Flash: No Flash
FocalLength: 460.0 mm.

Richard

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find and eye contact. I would lighten the eyes more and run NR on the BG.

[Richard Stern]

Thanks, Axel. It was indeed a great moment on a Xmas Count. "and run NR on the BG" - I did, using Noise Ninja plugin, but I guess not quite enough!

Richard.

[Tony Whitehead]

Nice find, Richard. I think the main problem here with the noise is that it seems like a significant crop with fairly aggressive sharpening which has accentuated the noise.

[Paul Lagasi]

Good Find Richard...heard lots of Barred Owls near New Germany, when I was down in November..but never did get a good look at one..great find for Xmas Bird Count..same nits as above, but darn nice for 1/30 of a second, ...Paul
p.s Still looking for that Dovekie...