I Could Tell this Great Horned Owl was Kidding

Taken Saturday at Mud lake . ISO is 800 at 1/160 sec at F8 and manually focussed with the Canon 400 F5.6 and 1.4X tc combo on a monopod. Flash for fill with the 580 EX at -1 . Light was in the wrong spot ...back lighting. The image is cropped from landscape to portrait mode to eliminate some of the hot spots in the BG.

What a beautiful shot! Look at all that detail in the feathers!!!

That's a classic. Great capture Gary.

Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.

Fantastic shot you even got the wink from the owl

so i want to ask, is flash good for shooting birds or some wildlife? i was worry to use flash for these kind but i need it in many situations, so it is not a bad idea to use it?
this shot by flash is good but i don't know if other shots in same situations will be good as well.

Gary;
Nice job exposing for the backlight. Good looking pose (with a BONUS wink).
I take it; that this again; is one of the juvenile owls. It must have been pretty low for the nice clear unobstructed shot. Lots of surrounding light leads me to ask; Was it near the edge of the woods close to lake or along the shoreline of the river?

Great shot

Great shot Gary. I have only shot Owls once but they had such great poses and expressions. This makes me want to get out and find some more.

very nice shot! love the expression.

Tareq wrote in post #2065177
so i want to ask, is flash good for shooting birds or some wildlife? i was worry to use flash for these kind but i need it in many situations, so it is not a bad idea to use it?
this shot by flash is good but i don't know if other shots in same situations will be good as well.

yes, sometimes it is needed. you need to analyse the scene and decide whether it will help you out. in the ops case the owl was backlit and he needed to balance the exposure by introducing some light to the front. you can always push up the ec but then you end up blowing out the background.

i wouldnt have been able to get this shot without flash.

Beautiful shot, nicely done

Beautiful shot, Gary. I like the pose.

haha, great shot Gary.

Great capture and very good timing Gary.

Thanks for looking and commenting to Livinthelife, Paul, Trace, waussie, Tareq ( see stupot's answer as he has answered your question perfectly), Ted, luckyart60, Mike, stupot ( great answer ), calikodcat, Joe, Billy and reyno.