Focused

Well done. The contrast between the trees and the feathers is lovely

Josiah,

very nice image and the focused view adds a lot of interest to it. I also like that some of the surroundings have been added, giving it a more natural setup.

While the 2/3 rule of thumb for position the main object is often a very good compositional aproach, one in some cases may try other options. To emphasize the focused view of the owl I can imagine that placing the owl even further left would be interesting. I tried it by moving the webbrowser window in such a way that the left site was "cropped" having the tree at the edge of the left site.

You may try it

Hey Josiah,
I too like the different look of this composition. Great pose, excellent detail, interesting habitat and you nailed the exposure. I agree with Cay-Uwe's idea on the cropping. The OOF background to the left of the subject's tree adds little to the image so, a crop off the left to eliminate it totally while retaining as much of the perch tree as possible would place much more emphasis on the subject as well as that lovely green canopy across the top. The background to the right has enough interest to not be considered dead space and as mentioned would give more emphasis to the Owl's stare. Just a few thoughts on a terrific image.
Congratulations on your recent success at the Por el Planeta Awards.
 Beans !

Another fine image from your hand, Josiah. Love the way the owl is viewed sideways, and the vertical pattern in the background. The green leaves addd for some extra atmosphere. All in all a great one , cheers, Hans

Excellent, Josiah.  I like the head turn you chose to present with that intense stare.  It pops nicely from the bg trees in the larger image.  I did some playing with this to look at alternative framings, and you might try looking at a 5 wide x 4 high aspect ratio with just a bit off the top-it looked really cool to me.  Superb detail in the owl and I like your dof.



 

Excellent shot Josiah, love the intense stare and the birch forest, this gives you the feeling of "being there". 

I really like the intense concentration you captured of this owl as it watched something at a distance. I very much like this composition also,


Sweet Photo Josiah


Congrats  for the excellent showing at the Por el Planeta Awards. You earned the recognition and deserve the attention. 

Because the owl is focused on something other than the photographer, it tells a nice story. I do agree with the other comments regarding the crop, especially considering the B.G. left of the tree is a bit bright.