Last Snowy of the Season

[Tim Harding]

Except for one or two stragglers the Snowy Owls have left my area for their Arctic breeding grounds. There was a mini-irruption last week as migrants from the south stopped over at the fields the winter resident owls had claimed. This resulted in lots of flight action as the residents were kept busy trying to chase the interlopers away from their territory. This young male flew literally right over our head several times to challenge other owls before always returning to the same fencepost.

150939

7D MkII, 500mm f/4 IS
1/2000 @ f/5.0 ISO 800

Lowered highlights and increased colour temp in LR5
NR on BG, Nik details and USM on bird in CS6. Some lightening of iris in eyes and augmentation of right pupil, which was hidden.

All C&C welcome and appreciated.
Thanks.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tim, your introduction relates very well to this flight pose - looking alert on a 'visitor'. Well exposed on the whites, great wingspread, and the snowy pops nicely against the earthy coloured BG. If anything, I would crop away the thin dark strip on the top of the frame.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb flight pose and exposure on the whites. Nice contrasting BG as well. TFS.

[William Dickson]

Very well done Tim. I like the grasses in the foreground, I think they give the image a good natural look about it. Great POV and lovely HA. I agree with Stuart about the dk strip. Good work and thanks for sharing

[shane shacaluga]

Lovely flight pose. Bird really stands out against BG. Good exposure on whites and composition too. Agree on the thin strip at top and would clone the one blade of grass which intersects the body in the middle part of the tail

Nicely done

[Girish Prahalad]

excellent freeze. like the comp as presented. great IQ & exposure

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous creature in a lovely habitat, nicely-handled whites. (Maybe a couple of hot spots, but hard to tell here and not a big deal.) I agree on the dark area at the top and that one piece of grass.