My favourite shot to begin the forums.

[Ramesh Anantharaman]

short eared owl,

Kutch, Gujarat

Canon Eos 40D, 500mm f/4 L IS, 1.4x T.C.

700mm, f/8, 1/800 sec, iso-200, aperture priority, -0.3 step exp. compn.

I felt i should start with my favorite shot for a first post.

hope to see some free and useful c&c

[Mrudul Godbole]

Welcome to IndiaWilds.

Beautiful first post. The eye contact is terrific. Its good that you got in the clear. Nice clear complimenting background. Nice details. Look forward to more images.

[Bibhav Behera]

A beautiful beginning to the Forums...
This is beautiful. The eye contact is lovely, the pose is nice. The open mouth is a plus... The background is smooth and helps the subject pop out. Has the background been blurred in post processing or is it natural?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Hi Ramesh,
Lovely image. I like the eye contact. Fascinating eyes. I like the composition. The space at the top can accommodate text for a magazine cover. It seems the bird is calling.

I am not familiar with this species. So picked up my Salim Ali. Quoting some interesting facts from there:

Scientific name: Asio flammeus

Length: 15 inch.
A slim medium sized owl. Pale buff heavily streaked with dark brown. head dark grey. Facial disc white intermixed with black, surrounded by dark brown ruff. Two upstanding ear-tufts above the brown eyes, wings and tail barred rufous and black. Pale buff below brown-streaked on breast. In flight rufous upper and white underside of pointed wings, with prominent dark bar and blackish tips diagnostic.

Distribution: Winter visitor to the Indian Subcontinent between September and April. Srilanka (occasional).

Habits: Seen singly or loose parties of 5 or 6 or more on the ground in scrubby grassland. When flushed flies leisurely away and drops to the ground again to the shelter of a grass clump or bush.

Food: Small mammals, birds and insects.

Would love to hear your observations on this species. Look forward to more.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Ramesh - Welcome to Indiawilds!

First nice post & simply too good to start with. The eye contact is stunning, great details around the face, I guess f8 has worked very well. Look forward to more, tfs

[Chitrita Chatterjee]

very very beautiful..... lovely sharp eyes.... and a stunning capture...congrats..and look forward to many more pics from you.... :-)

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Hi, welcome.
A stunning shot and a lovely first post. Loved everything in this image.
Keep posting.