Juvenile Burrowing Owl

[Steve Canuel]

20D, 1-400L @ 400mm, f6.3, 1/250s, ISO 400, -1/3 EC, handheld, about 40% of original.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Steve, its always fun to go back and process overlooked images. Newly learnt pp work etc. I like the light and warmer colours, and good DOF too. Great eye contact, and overall nice and sharp. How I wish for just one owl in my files.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the lighting and eyes of the owl. I am heading to Florida next week. I hope to get some images of these owls. If get one like this I would be happy!

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

I enjoy the soft lighting, pose and colors in the bird as you mentioned.
He looks a bit uncertain, its a big world out there!
I think you made a good compromise on the shooting angle. Part of me wants lower, but then you lose more of the feet, perhaps bring in poor BG, etc.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the light, pose, sharpness and setting and would only tone down the whites a tad.

[Danny J Brown]

He's sure a cutie, Steve and I like the color as well. It looks like its left eye has a bigger pupil. Perspective I guess.

[Steve Canuel]

Thanks to all for the comments.

Danny,
You're correct on the pupils. The left eye was slightly in shadow. These guys have incredibly sensitive pupils. I noticed them opening and closing on one shoot and I thought I was seeing things because of how fast they were changing size. I have other photos of more with more dramatice differences but here's an interesting sample. Same bird, same light, 4 seconds apart (unprocessed, excuse the shabby blending).