![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/short-eared-owl-6203-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-6203-ron-dudley\\"")
1\/400, f\/9, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nI photographed this handsome Short-eared Owl in early June of last year very close to\u00a0the border between southwest Montana and Idaho.\u00a0The light was extremely\u00a0low (at least for photographing\u00a0an active, moving bird) but that made the lush green background quite dark and I think the owl is simply gorgeous against that backdrop. The detail on the owl is excellent (to the point that we can even see the “fringing” on\u00a0one of the left wing primaries that allows silent flight in owls) and the soft light is evenly distributed\u00a0over the entire bird. And I enjoy the pensive gaze as the bird looks out of frame to our right.<\/p>\n
However there’s a potential problem. One of the many lessons I learned years ago when I was extremely active on a bird photography critique forum (Nature Photographers Network –\u00a0NPN) was that if the perch is too large relative to the size of the bird it often has negative aesthetic consequences and perhaps that’s the case here. This owl chose to perch on a\u00a0large old wooden\u00a0fence post and the massive size of that post\u00a0may dominate the entire image for some. For that reason when I posted another image of this bird last year the owl was looking to our left so\u00a0I cropped it vertically and that composition allowed me to crop out almost half of the right side of the post so it wasn’t so large relative to the size of the bird.<\/p>\n
So, what say ye? If you have an opinion you’d care to share I’d be interested in knowing how you feel about the aesthetics of the image as it involves the relative sizes of the post and bird. If you do please be brutally honest because I’d really like to know.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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PS – I’m so angry I could spit (or worse)!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n We learned yesterday that the\u00a0Utah Department of Natural Resources is exploring the possibility of allowing ATV (all terrain vehicle)\u00a0use on Antelope Island State Park. I simply could not believe what I was reading when the Ogden Standard Examiner broke the news in this article<\/a> yesterday.<\/em><\/p>\n If there’s\u00a0anywhere in the entire state of Utah\u00a0where\u00a0ATV’s should be banned it’s Antelope Island! Those noisy, dust churning, habitat destroying and wildlife disturbing contraptions\u00a0should have no place on the island with its teeming wildlife and the quiet,\u00a0natural\u00a0sanctuary it provides for anyone who visits.\u00a0Period, end of story! \u00a0ATV’s have\u00a0already\u00a0ruined large chunks of our natural habitat so I have to ask publicly –<\/em> What in the hell is DNR “thinking”?<\/em><\/p>\n The same mentality dominated the Wildlife Board several years ago\u00a0when they approved state sanctioned hunting of\u00a0American Crows. They had to officially and disingenuously reclassify crows as “upland game birds” (gimme a break!)\u00a0in order to do it and they approved the measure knowing full well that scientific research didn’t support the move and that no one eats crows so their carcasses would simply be abandoned in the field.\u00a0That decision\u00a0was an excuse for killing and nothing more.<\/em><\/p>\n