Theme: Northern Hawk Owl

[Shawn Zierman]

Image is full frame side to side, just trimmed a bit off the top for the 8x10 format. This owl was fed live mice in the northwoods of Minnesota as part of the image making. The only other image I posted of this bird, Daniel Cadieux mentioned that this owl has a bit of a goatee....well, he has a great eye for detail.....we actually named this owl "Black Beard" for that very feature :) Canon7d, Sigma50/500os, iso800, 1/200, f8, cropped, NR to the bg, USM. Comments and critiques welcome.
Regards,
Shawn Zierman

[arash_hazeghi]

lovely portrait Shawn, great pose, details and eye contact. and the goatee!

TFS

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent portrait, Shawn.

Regards,
Satish.

[shane shacaluga]

Excellent head on portrait! haha you shouldn't have mentioned the Goatee, now i cannot stop looking at it :)

[Raybel Robles]

This is wonderful. Love the sharpness and details. Those bright yellow eyes really shines within the dark and light colors of the bird.

[William Dickson]

Very nice image Shawn. I like the beard, along with the other colours on the bird. Very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing this

Will

[Gabriela Plesea]

A beauty, cannot take my eyes off this owl:)

Lovely contrast and colours, whites so well exposed, the yellow of the eyes and beak so striking...Beautiful detail.

And of course, the goatee...Too cute:bg3:

Kind regards (and a big smile)

[Doug Brown]

This bird is near the top of my list, and you got a great portrait of it. Nice detail. I wouldn't mind a slight head turn towards us.

[Jim Crosswell]

Stunning image Shawn! I like the IQ, details, exposure, BG and composition. Looks like the theme winner to me.

[David Salem]

Awesome Shawn! The best portrait I have ever seen of this species. Great detail and texture in this fine frame. Perfect BG too. Well done

[Richard Flack]

This is a real cracker Shawn, awesome detail and great subject. Well done!

[Ritesh Nangare]

Stunning portrait , great amount of details here, lovely light, eye contact, and awesome bird.