This Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) was resting near the Namgang river in South Korea. At first I thought it was on a nest (this was in March two years ago). However, the next day it wasn’t there, and I could see the site was too unsheltered, low down and near the track for nesting. But I certainly enjoyed making eye contact with one of my favourite birds.
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I was about 30m away. I cropped by 50% so could have included more of the environment. Also, any technical points?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon 7100, 200-500mm (@500m), 1/320, f7.1, ISO 1250.
What a great capture! Looks like he’s sleepy. I think I would crop it more if it were mine. It looks like it can be. It’s so pretty and kind of camouflaged by the surroundings. Awesome find!
Great catch. The feather detail is quite nice. I feel like the background is overwhelming the bird. Maybe a radial filter to keep the bird a bit brighter than its surroundings. That wink is pretty great!
Your best post yet, Mike. I like this a lot. For my taste, the background isn’t overwhelming, and owls are known for blending in to their surroundings. As noted, the wink is just great. To my eye, he does look just slightly tilted to the right so a tad of counter-clockwise rotation might be nice. While the square crop works for this subject, I also think just a tad off the bottom might work even better.
Lovely detail in the owl and well done on the focus spot on. If you do decide to ccw rotation a bit I might also look at a slight shift of owl left in the frame just to move it a bit more off center. This photo really shows how the owl blends in to the environment.
What a gorgeous capture!! I think the element of camouflage is a strong feature – the BG is lovely without being distracting. The wink is icing on the cake!
Thanks everyone for your comments. I really appreciate how they can improve a photo. I’ve straightened the owl, while removing a bit from the bottom and left. This also brings the bird closer, making it more visble in its surroundings.
