Great Horned Owl (captive)

[Raymond Barlow]

1/3200s f/4.0 at 220.0mm iso320
D300 / 200-400 VR
Simcoe Ontario, Canada

Hand held, natural light, slight crop

I clipped the birds right wing, and tried to make something out
of this shot., the small amount of snow in the area where we were shooting did give us some nice light at last weekends workshop.

[Jim Fenton]

Ray...

To me the issue with this image is simply the fact that you didn't acheive even lighting.

With this being a captively flown bird, would have it been possible to position yourself more optimally to the light or for the handler to have utilized a better flight path?

[Dan Walker]

Great pose with open mouth. Agree with needing even lighting on the face. He looks angry.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Wow Raymond the action you captured here is awesome. Thge wonderful eye contact and the open, calling beak puts it over the top for me. It would be great to have a tad more lighting on the left but love this one as is too. Congratulations on superb timing Raymond.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I really like the crop and the calling pose makes it even better. The sun behind you would have put it over the top.

[Raymond Barlow]

thanks for the comments everyone.

I agree, even light on the face would have been excellent. This is the first time I have worked with this falconry center, and I am learning as I go along. This particular bird will only fly from perch to perch, and we cannot change the position of the perches that were available at the time.

For future shoots, we will have a portable perch and much more success all around.

I do have some other images to share of this workshop, and will post them this week.

[Bonnie Block]

Dramatic pose and strong image, Ray. Agree with the nit on the light--but next time!! Looking forward to seeing more of it!