Western Screech Owl

naturezone · Jun 10, 2013

We don't see many screech owls in this area, so this is a treat. This one appears to be nesting in the tree, with another (male?) staying close. I thought the colors of the sunset reflecting off the leaves in the background added to the mood in this image. Shot with a Canon 7D and 500mm f/4 lens.

NatureZone Photography - Nature and Wildlife Images by Karl Krieger

Thanks for looking!

leighthal · Jun 10, 2013

Very nice. I like the diagonal break. Can you push it a bit more? Making the tree start in left bottom corner to fill in some of that distracting white. That was the owl will be more vertical as well.

DarkShadow · Jun 10, 2013

Nice shot! The owl camouflage nicely with the tree.

sm4him · Jun 10, 2013

Really nice! Shows off how good that owl's camouflage is!

I was fine with the composition, and still am, but leighthal's comment does make me wonder: I think I'd be tempted to try a vertical version, to lose all that tree photo-left of the owl. It would bring the owl out a bit more, I think. Yes, you'd lose a lot of the sunset-tinted background, which IS quite lovely, but you could keep enough of it to still work just fine.