Close Up- Barn Owl

Finally a close up of this male Barn Owl I have spent all week with,most of the time due to the freezing weather he did'nt show and I was unsure of his survival.Then on this day,late afternoon he started to hunt, I had become frozen to the ground during my time there waiting,looking like a bush He started quartering not far from me and then came close,stopped and started to hover,I could hear his wing beats,he allowed me a few shots until he left as quick as he'd arrived.Another magical moment.I wont post any more Barn Owl images as this is the third now, the rest can be seen on my blog,I would like to thank the people who have commented on my two previous Barn Owl images,much appreciated

All Comments And Advice Welcome

Nikon D3s
Nikon F4VR600+Nikon 1.4
F5.6,1/400 @850mm
iso 400,-0.3ev
Matrix
PP-LR2.6,CS3,Full Frame

Thanks For Looking

Wow. Has to be one of the finest Barn Owl images that I have seen here. The blue and orange colours on the wings make this for me.

C

Absolutely brilliant Craig.

Well waited out and glad to see it's still alive.

Chris

That's CLOSE Craig - good fieldcraft

For me the colours are just a bit too vibrant but well done for such a close encounter

Bob on.

Very good stuff.
JohnR
PS Looked at this a few times again. How did you get the bird against the dark background ? Cheers
JohnR

How did I know this was the shot I'd see on here today (saw it first on your blog)

Great stuff Craig, well worth all the effort.


liam.

It is absolutely stunning. Almost makes me feel like throwing my camera in the bin!!!! Brilliant work, the detail is awesome!

Great image, well done

Hello Craig.

Thats a beauty and well worth all the time you have put in with these.

I'd also just lower the sat/n alittle mainly on the blue side.

Well done.

Not a lot left to say Craig top knotch, amazing light love it
Bronia

Very impressive indeed, as a lover of black backgrounds, this certainly works for me. Excellent.

Nice one Craig

Any very minor nits covered

Craig
Sent you a Private e mail
Cheers
John

Result - no doubt about it , but I would agree with those who say that dropping the saturation a bit would make it even better.
Eric

Nits mentioned Craig, however I don't see how this is full frame taking into account the aspect ratio..? There is no detail in the BG either so I'm guessing you have used a black brush tool to give the impression..? I like the effect and the image as a whole and would be interested in the technique you used to get the final product..

Brett

Thank you for your kind comments Brett,the D3s gives you a choice of Image Areas,Fx,Dx,1.2x and a few more,this image is shot in the Dx format and is full frame, it gives you a smaller raw file and I have used the crop tool to straighten the image,the BG is a row of dark hedgerow and in my blog the second image shows this hedge to the left of the owl.The owl worked it's way up towards where I was waiting,I have darkened the BG in levels/curves, and removed a few bright spots hope that helps.I have toned down the saturation on the repost, thanks again

Hi Craig Nice images from your barn owls recently. I think I would prefer the image in a portrait crop with more space below the bird. I think the best shot is on your blog.

Ian

However you did it, Craig, it is an exceedingly fine image.

David

Superb shot Craig!
Love the repost!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Hi Craig

Super capture - Ilike the colours in the re-post better!

David

Nice one Craig good to see you are hard at it.
The colours on the repost are much better for me.

Major

Sublime, no other word.

Pete

An absolute STUNNER Craig. Simply wonderful image.
Robert

Well captured. Prefer the repost.

Simply wonderful!

Thanks for the info Craig, appreciated.. Well done on all respects and the repost works very well indeed.

Brett

excellent Craig - prefer the processing in the second

cheers

Colin

Hey Craig

A very surreal image, very strong but I must confess to preferring your previous barn owl post
As I said, very strong though (also prefer the second version!!)

Cheers

Andy