The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I look for owls every time I go out and have never seen one in CO that wasn’t pointed out to me first. I’d heard that there were one or two Eastern screech owls that winter in a park in Fort Collins and found this guy/girl (no idea) the first time I went to check it out. It was almost sunset and the owl was just waking up.
Specific Feedback
I took out a few small branches in the background, but am not sure what to leave and what to remove…
This is excellent, Debbie. Owl feathers are so cryptic that it’s always difficult to tell whether they’re in sharp focus or not, so the tongue and beak being nice and sharp is a big plus. If this were mine, I’d get rid of all the stuff to the right of the tree and go with a narrower crop allowing me to pull in the right side a bit more (not all the way to the tree). If you have the pixels, you could even take a bit off the bottom and tighten this up a bit more.
Debbie, this is really a neat image. I would try your idea to cleanup the right side and remove those limbs for a cleaner view there… You could also crop it way down for a portraiture of just the owl too…
Regardless, still a fine image of the owl…
Great image! While we’ve seen a number of owl shots on NPN, this is unique (at least my memory says so) because of the yawn which is terrific. Whether you do something with the right side or create an owl portraiture, the results would be wonderful.
A rather unique shot of an owl. Well captured. The image shows off how well camouflaged the owl is. The detail in the tree is nice as well. I would agree with the other it would be worth trying different crops to see how this would look with the branches removed on the right.
Veeeery cool!! And unique! I don’t mind the branches on the right – they add authenticity and don’t distract, for me. I like the tree but might consider a crop from the left to minimize (remove most of) the dark area on the left, as it pulls my eye a bit. Other than that, perfect and well presented!!
Wonderful species to capture, and it blends in very nicely with the bark (as they do). Wondering what other cropping options you have from the original image, I could image much more on the right as well as an option. Cheers, Hans
You could also crop it way down for a portraiture of just the owl too… 
