Avian - 2nd HM

Beautiful, John.
Very nice moment captured.

Wow, a shot I am still dreaming of.. Like it a lot ! Cheers, Hans

Not a bad bg at all, John. At least the farmer wasn't using a blue plastic tarp to cover the tractor! Beautiful catch of the owl and worm. I love the pose and it's neat that it has the worm at one end with the whole thing dangling.

I love it John - I particularly enjoy photos that make me say, "I wish I would have shot that!" This shot elicits that response!

great shot

Thanks all.
Just found an old mono one taken in 1968 !! FP4 on a pentax S1A i think !!
Cheers
JR

Very cool! Incredibly fascinating capture and top notch exposure and detail.

Excellent as posted - no problem for me with either the end of the worm or the BG. That looks very nice for ISO 800 on the D200 - do you use Nikon CaptureNX or Photoshop or what?

Thanks all.
Richard -thanks
I have made myself quite un popular on forums for various reasons - often because I dont shoot raw and don't use photo shop.
(I cant afford it ) Some upset me by going on about cameras costing more than my life savings - and that's without a lens !!!!
I use paint shop pro - version 7 would you believe !! It does everything I need really. I got it free off a cd in a mag !!!
As I keep saying - I like to think of me as a naturalist not a photographer. and going on from that , forum photo needs are way different from the norm. When you look at some of the critique, then some folks are downloading stuff and searching for flaws.
I like to think I can get a decent pic on budget gear- after all things are not as they were 40 years back- agencies are full of leopard pics etc and so what do you do with the stuff you get anyway. I have always said- the secret of getting interesting stuff is by being in the right place and that is often far off lands - so I am stuffed in that respect and have to stick to the relatively few species I can get near to home. I do a lot of lectures and so at least I can find a use for them. An ex friend of mine used Paint shop pro which I gave him and then he went up market to various PS versions and his stuff has certainly deteriorated in my opinion. Thanks for taking an interest in mystuff,
Cheers
Take care
John


Take care

Excellent catch!
Great pose, very fine detail, and nice BG.


Sandy

Great shot, even despite the swinging worm. Really like the tilt of the owl, the stare, and big claws hanging on. Background looks fine to me.

I like it John. No nits from me.

John, this is wonderful. As mentioned, I think you lucked out with the color of the tarp.

I'm curious about the lighting. Is this all natural light coming into the barn, some of the indoor lighting, or was flash used? Whatever it is, it's great.

Max

Thanyou all.
Max
Yes the light is coming in from the right which is the only open side. However there are a row of corrugated roof plastics and one is about over the bird. They are very old and stained and so the light coming through can be a bit green. I asked the farmer if I could clean them but when I got up there I thought "I,m a bit old for this" and changed my mind !!!
Cheers
JR

Love the expression! Excellent work.

Ray

Nice shot. Owls are my favorite birds. The BG worked great for this shot and the color is perfect. It looks just like a natural OOF BG never would have guessed it was a tarp. The wormy snack tops it all off.

I would be very happy with this image, I wouldn't be complaining about the background or the worm. They are both just fine.
May

Very nice image. Agree with you that the background isn't ideal. Maybe bringing down the saturation just a touch?

There is nowt wrong with that image John, and there is nowt wrong with shooting the way you want too and using the software that you are comfortable with, it gets you the results... (btw WPotY now accepts original jpgs)

Thanks all for your support.
Cheers
JR

John - I had a strong feeling this would be in contention for the yearly Avian pick - so a big congrats!
Way to go!

Sandy

Just fantastic, John. Well deserved. What a great photo.

Congratulations. A well deserved win.
May

Ey Up, John.

Congrats on the 2nd HM, very well deserved in my opinion

Andy...

Congratulations on your HM John, excellent image well deserved.

Great moment and timing. Congrats in the award!
Grt, Ingrid.

Way to make the best of all ...the background and the software. Congrats on your HM pick! Sharon

Thanks all. Just seen the yearly result. Very chuffed !!
Thanks again.
JohnR

John, congratulations for your avian 2nd. HM.
Thank you very much for sharing this amazing shot with us.

Too Cool John!
Congrats on a well deserved EP!!

Congratulations on the HM, a wonderful shot.

Congrats on your HM John

I can see why it was chosen, great image

Thanks a lot guys. It does boost my thoughts that cheap gear can come up with the goods if you can get to the place where the good stuff is.. What I mean is that if someone could pay for me to go to Africa on a photo safari trip with my crap gear then I reckopn I could get a decent lion pic or two ! But then- think about it. What would I do with them ? Agencies are up to the neck with African stuff. Try a House Spasrrow pic !!!!!!!!
cheers
JohnR