Spotted Owlet

I spent some extremely personal time with 3 spotted owlets in Gir. They have the cutest eyes. This is the first which I am posting. Do look out for more on the series. There is a pleasant surprise on its way.

Canon 450D, 300mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x TC handheld

SS 1/30 (+0.3 EC)
f/5.6
ISO 1600

This is a Full Frame Image. Comments and Critiques welcome.

Seems like the light was very low. Good job. The eyes look very adorable. Did you try moving the camera a bit to the left and as a reult composing with the bird more to the right in the frame?

By pleasant surprise, I hope you are not talking about a spotted owlet perched on a lion's back :D

Hi Bhargava,
I went in for an intentional centred composition. I felt the head on stare worked well with a centred composition here.

Nice.The centered composition works here. Couldnt agree more that owls have captivating eyes.

TFS
Roopak

Nice eye contact. It is good that you got the beak clearly above the branch. The shutter speed is pretty low. The branches nicely frame the image. Also, the right eye (the one on the left side in the image) and the way the head is angled, didn't make me realise that the head is very close to the centre of the frame. Central positioning makes the image static. However, no point in blindly following a rule. In this case, I agree with the composition.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Spotted owls are one of the most beautiful birds.I have spotted few nearby my place.Difficult to photograph as they always perch deep inside the foliage.Lovely eye contact.TFS