Another day and a bit better luck.
Although when i went out to the site I, in my new insulated $40 rubbers, I went on the water side of the dyke into the marsh lands. I hunkered down and waited patiently for the hawks and owls to show.
Meanwhile a dozen or so big lenses were lined up on the dyke looking the other way.
All the action was there. Eventually I did leave my hiding spot and spent the last 20 minutes of so of good light with a couple owls and hawks.
7D, 500mm + 1.4 TE, 1/1250, f/7.1. I was surprised by how much sharper images appeared in field by st0pping down lens just a bit when using TC.
The owl was flying quite fast and was on the right side of frame. I added canvas and filled it with a cut from the left side and then cropped.
The left side of face was in shadow and has been lightened quite a bit as has the upper wing.
That's an unusual image, and I can appreciate the difficulty in the position in the frame. I usually crop a flight shot (balance is my pet peeve). Love the intensity in the eye and the wing positions. And what a perfect background for this bird. Nice!
Beautiful warm light and of course I love the "look" Dave. As Gloria mentioned, BG and habitat work really well. The only thing about this image (which I didn't see in the previous one) is that the eyes give away a bit of motion blur, so this one does not look at crisp as the last one.
I think the repost is much stronger. I only see really bad noise in the underwing area so I'd consider either running NR there or letting the deep shadow come back in to hide the noise. Those eyes are beautiful and you did a good job of crisping them up!
I probably needed to do a little bit of compromising under that wing.
Now that i have looked a photo a few more times I also think focus was more on the down wing than head, which might make some sense for the camera focus system.
Short-eared Owl
I like the one wing down and agree with John re: eyes.
