Pharaoh Eagle Owl

[Ignacio Yufera]

Also known as Desert Eagle Owl, until recently it was considered a subspecies of the much larger Eurasian E.O.

I was lucky to find this one roosting on the ground, they usually stay high in cliffs during the day. Took a lot of crawling to get close, though.

Near Erg Chebbi, Morocco.

Canon 1D MkIV, Canon 800 + 1.4x, 1/400 @ f/8, ISO 200

[Marina Scarr]

This is one amazing looking owl, and the light here is spectacular. You've done a great job with the composition and inclusion of the environment. I like that you can see his talons grabbing the rocks beneath him. The only thing I might do here is take a tad off of the right to put him more to the right of the frame and less centered.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Ignacio, terrific low angle. light, head turn and am liking the habitat as well....crawling through this habitat with canon 800....you definitely put in the hard work here :-) way to go..

A round of USM on the bird will improve it a lot IMO.

[Ofer Levy]

Another beautiful image Ignacio! Love the light, colours and habitat. Agree with some more selective sharpening and adding a bit to the left to move the bird a bit to the right - nothing major...

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto all of the positives above. Not sure if the bird had its head tilted or if it needs a bit of CCW rotation. I love the o-o-f bush to our right of the bird. This might open the door for a break the rules composition; you might have pointed the camera well to our right....

Taking the time to eliminate the o-o-f grasses in front of the bird would do wonders for the image (if doing so fits with your personal ethics).

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose and light, a bit soft as presented, some USM will improve this by much

[Dave Leroy]

An excellent job of showing how the owl blends into the environment. I really like the lovely light and inclusion of habitat.

I like the different ideas of moving the owl off centre as well as a bit more sharpening.

If mine I might remove the very few grass stems just behind the owls talons.

Great shot and well worth the hard work and effort.

Dave

[Ignacio Yufera]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I love the o-o-f bush to our right of the bird. This might open the door for a break the rules composition; you might have pointed the camera well to our right....

Agree on the oof bush, luckily I had enough time to try a number of different comps, and he even helped looking to the desired direction... I have removed some grasses and added some sharpening here.

[Arthur Morris]

Ignacio, Please do share your new version with us here.

[Ignacio Yufera]

Ignacio, Please do share your new version with us here.

Sorry Artie, just edited the previous post to include the image.

[Arthur Morris]

Wow, I love version II; you had even created the version that I suggested while you were in the field and got the bird looking to our right. Suberb!

How much of a crop is the image in Pane #8?

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Ignacio, I like both versions but prefer the second one.

Here is a repost with just tiny bit more sharpening, slight crop off the top and selective desaturating of the BG. I like the colours of the BG in the original but I feel the bird is a bit lost. In here I tried to make it stand out a bit more. Not necessarily an improvement of the original - just another option....