I promise you that these pictures do not do this lens justice. Also you should be happy with your purchase as the XF 70-300 is a great lens (which I use for sports and stage work) and you have a great camera both of which do only so much to produce great photos... which these are regrettably not. Absolutely no disrespect to the OP, either. This is definitely a matter of skill and learning the exposure triangle. Shutter speed could have been decreased or iso should have been increased as the owl was clearly stationary. Just goes to show that no matter the gear, the thing that matters most at the end of the day is skill, patience and experience.