Short-eared Owl

[Dave Leroy]

This was taken a couple mornings ago. A tip of one wing was clipped so I added canvas fixed it up and then cropped to a pano. Nothing extra done to the eyes just the same sharpening as for the balance of the owl.
7D, 500mm, 1/3200, f/5.6, ISO400, manual, tripod.

[Doug Brown]

Looks good Dave. The eye contact is awesome and so is the sharpness. Normally I'm not a fan of this wing position, but it seems to work here. I might crop a sliver off the top.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Dave! I like the wing position, sharpness, eyes, visible tail and BG.

[allanrube]

The only thing that could bother me (and I am not sure it does) is the blue section of bg. Excellent shot!

[Ofer Levy]

An impressive image! Pano works nicely in here IMHO.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent, this is a tough shot to get and you did great! excellent BG too

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot Dave, love the eye contact - I am off to try to get some SEO this morning

[gail bisson]

What a great shot. I love the direct gaze and the BG. Well done,
Gail

[Melissa Groo]

Fantastic capture, Dave. Like Doug I'm not normally a fan of this wing position either but it looks great here. Awesome light and the eye contact is killer. Was the owl baited at all?

[Dave Leroy]

Thanks everyone. The comments are very much appreciated.

No Melissa, no baiting and thanks for asking.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Dave, must have been a thrill. loved the head on pose and sharpness. For this head-on angle, I think the wing position works very well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This quite a beautiful image...one that was worth the wingtip repair. Speaking of which, I cannot tell with much confidence which side was done, so that is a great PP job you did. Great incoming pose - I'd be very proud of this image!

[Nancy Bell]

Awesome! That straight-on head view is magnificant! How do you get an owl to fly at you when you do not use bait?

[dankearl]

THis is a tough angle to get right.
Excellent focus and eye contact.
I envy you having this species around.
A really beautiful Owl.

[Dave Leroy]

It is definitely a lot of fun to spend time with the owls and harriers.
Dan I am glad you looked for the repaired wingtip and did not see anything. Thanks. It was the bird's right tip.

Nancy, I just figured out what the birds were doing and their habits, found a good spot for light angle, bg, and a few bushes to break up my profile and put in the time on sunny days. I am retired and love being outdoors and it worked out this time. Thanks for asking.

[Jamie Douglas]

Superb Dave. Nice work on the wing tip repair and pano works really well.