Barred Owl in Habitat

[Raymond Barlow]

D300 / 200-400 VR @ 290 mm
1/25", f4, iso 250 natural light
Katana Gimbal head, Gitzo 1340
Slight crop. cloned 2 small twigs.

Taken on a recent trek to Brighton with some good friends, lots of laughs and awesome shooting.

[Bonnie Block]

This is very nice, Ray.
I like the inclusion of habitat--and snow a plus!
Great clear view--and at a nice level.
I might be tempted to take a tiny bit off both sides.

[Jim Fenton]

Sharp, good exposure and I like the inclusion of habitat.

perhaps brighten the slight catch light in the eyes a bit? I realize these birds have inky looking eyes :)

The white OOF snow covered tree trunk to the left of the main diagonal branch is a bit distracting to me. Have you tried this as a vertical whereby you could get a fair bit of that out of the image?

I know it takes away from the overall "environmental" aspect of this image...just a thought.

If you could have shifted just a hair to the left, you may have nee able to keep some of that bright OOF are out perhaps (again...I'm thinking more of a vertical).

[denise ippolito]

Raymond, There are alot of branches but they seem to frame the owl nicely and it has a clear view as mentioned by Bonnie. Bautiful pose and details. I see the OOF white areas Jim has mentioned. The snow on the branches is a nice touch. Well done. You really do find the owls!!

[Ofer Levy]

Another lovely habitat image Ray! I think I prefer the previous one though.

[Nate Chappell]

Looks great to me Ray, love the snowy setting and your comp!

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful Image Bhai, loved the eye contact and pose here, the environ adds well to this, congrats..

[Harshad Barve]

lovely eye contact , pose , compo and snow here
TFS

[Juan Aragonés]

Ray I like it a lot this photograph. Fantastic eye contact, sharpness and very nice mood :-)

[Raymond Barlow]

Sharp, good exposure and I like the inclusion of habitat.

perhaps brighten the slight catch light in the eyes a bit? I realize these birds have inky looking eyes :)

thanks Jim, as a rule, I never mess around with the eyes on any wildlife photographs, as I do as little post processing as possible., just a personal preference.

The white OOF snow covered tree trunk to the left of the main diagonal branch is a bit distracting to me. Have you tried this as a vertical whereby you could get a fair bit of that out of the image?

Cool idea bro, I do have a lot of full vertical frames from this shoot, that have cleaner and less cluttered backgrounds, so I liked this one for the habitat shot., although it is very cluttered.

I know it takes away from the overall "environmental" aspect of this image...just a thought.

If you could have shifted just a hair to the left, you may have nee able to keep some of that bright OOF are out perhaps (again...I'm thinking more of a vertical).

I see what you mean... I didn't have much time with this scene, and the bird was very busy late in the day with some other photographers activities! (enough said)

thanks for your help bud... the whole series will be uploaded to my blog here soon.

take good care.

[Danny J Brown]

Awesome shot Ray - I love the surrounding snow covered branches.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Ray! I have heard these owl but have never had a chance to see one.