New England Snowy Owl

[allanrube]

We look forward to snowy owl season each year. We wonder if there will be several in our area close enough to photograph or (more typically) only a couple that can be seen at great distances in the marsh.
This season has been like no other in decades. In past years a good day meant seeing 2 at Plum Island. Yesterday, 23 were spotted there. Many snowies been reported along the coast and even inland here in Nashua.
Birders and photographers have excited but this has led to people ignoring restricted areas and groups flushing out these peaceful birds who normally would like to spend most of a day just sitting in one spot.
I found an owl on the beach yesterday morning. By keeping my distance I was able to spend 20 minutes taking photos, before slowly backing away.

Nikon D7100 800 VR with 1.25 tc 1/1000 at 7.1 iso 200

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[Richard Unsworth]

Beautiful composition and execution. Like the grass, BG is awesome

[keith mitchell]

Allan it's nice that you are treating these magnificent birds with the respect they deserve, I would find it very difficult to find any faults with this excellent image.
Keith.:S3:

[Grady Weed]

Nice image. The right eye, in frame would be nice to se it or not at all. Other than that, a nice one. You have a dust bunny, at the top, right of center.

[allanrube]

Grady, do you have many snowies in Maine?
I did see the dust bunny and took it off my saved tiff file. I thought I had done that here too. Thanks for pointing it out.

To anyone else - pretend it is not there. It isn't worth reposting for that. :)

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Allan, lovely image with great details and sharpness, perfect exposure. I find the BG a bit bright and drawing my attention and would suggest toning it down a little. If you have room, a little more room on the RHS and a little bit less on the LHS to give the owl some space to look into. Loi

[Marina Scarr]

This is quite a lovely image, Allan. If you have enough room to move the owl slightly more to the left, I think it would be even stronger. Lucky you to have so many snowies up there, but how irresponsible for people to be flushing them.

[allanrube]

Repost - darkened the bg a bit, extended canvas to right, cropped a bit off left, eliminated dust spot.

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[Grady Weed]

Love the re-post Allan. No snowies for me yet here. They might be out there, but have not had time to go look. Sad face.

[Bill Dix]

Lovely light, nice sharp image and good pose. Like the repost. We're now reportedly up to 26 in New Jersey. Amazing year.

[allanrube]

Yes. The downside is that so many viewers are flushing birds left and right.