Burrowing Owl at Cape Coral

[Dennis Zaebst]

I took this one back in March of 2007 at the end of a long day of shooting.

Canon 20D, 500 mm f/4 + 1.4X TC; f/6.3, 1/125 sec.; ISO 200; 550 EX flash fill + flash extender; RAW capture.

Post in LR2, cropped slightly and increased contrast; adjusted blacks a bit; output as sRGB JPG. Otherwise as shot.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Dennis

[Randy Stout]

Dennis:

Nicely captured burrowing owl, with that classic stare. Well exposed and sharp.
Subtle use of fill flash( which is good!)

I would try to tone down the OOF grass in the foreground so it doesn't compete with the bird so much. The saturation looks a bit high to me.

Cheers

Randy

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Like the head turn & eye contact. Exposure is spot on with good detail. Ditto Randy on toning down the OOF grass in the FG.:)

[Bob Pelkey]

Would be curious to see greater use of fill flash for more contrast here. I'm about to hunt for the owl for my first observation in four attempts momentarily. Without the capability of flash.

[Fabs Forns]

Men, men... :)
What I liked so much about this was the foreground, I'm a sucker for OOF green in the FG. I'd crop from the left, though, the broken blades and roots are too realistic, and I'd take the brown patch at the lower right and make it green.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm gonna defend the men and say I'm with them for the FG grasses. We do like (love!) them there and do not wish them gone, its just they are too "neon" and catches the eye (at least for me). Just a bit of selective yellow channel desaturation to those would be good IMO. I'm also wondering what a version with the eyes leveled would look like. Awesome greenery elsewhere though...that's the lushest setting I've seen in a while for this species!

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks everyone...I'll take your suggestions, edit just a bit more, and I'll be back. That brown patch in the lower right, is the out of focus mate of the bird standing up. I have a few more photos with him (I assume it's a him) out of focus and her (again, assumed) in focus in the lower right.

As for the lush grass, that was the front lawn of a house in which the owls had taken up residence. There was a yellow tape marking off the burrow.

[Dennis Zaebst]

This is not the same frame as the original, but it was taken a second or so after the first one. It may address some of the critiques. It doesn't show the cut blades of grass to the left, and it doesn't get overwhelmed by the OOF grass in the foreground (I think, anyway). See if you think this is an improvement. Thanks!

[Fabs Forns]

Pretty good, but the oddball (me) like the original better.

[Jim Fenton]

I can't believe I'm saying this...but I like the first one better as well.

Saturation was better throughout and the second example is simply looking kinda dull to my eyes.

If you selected the grass in the front and turned down the yellow hue in it a bit, I think that would be a swell compromise without putting a damper on the entire image.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Original photo, tighter crop. I tried to desaturate the yellow tones but that desaturated the eyes to the point they looked unnatural. As I said in an earlier post, post processing is my weakest skill. Any other suggestions (it might be too late for that).