Great Grey Owl

[Rick Dobson]

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt206/Silvo/20090220_4340-web.jpg

Taken last weekend near Ottawa, Ontario in the early morning light. Bait was used.
Canon 50D, 1/3200, f/4.0, ISO 400, lens 70-200 f/4L

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Love the superb action you captured in this image and the detail is awesome. Excellent exposure and timing in this image as well. Many thanks for sharing this beautiful image Rick

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, light and details. I'd love to see this species sometime. I might desaturate the blues a few points.

P.S. I fixed the link, you had two images attached.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Rick,
couldn't see this one earlier (thanks Axel)...but it was worth the wait. Excellent/super wingspread and pose on the owl and the blues look ok on my monitor....but worth taking a look into. I've debated the BG 2 tree trunks......and while the one on the right isn't too distracting....the one near the wing is a bit more...possibly blurring that one some more would help.....but that is such a small minimal part of the scene.....that the capture of the owl with that wingspread....far outweighs that trunk. Nicely done!

[David Thomasson]

Beautiful capture. You surely caught the moment on that one.

I agree that the blues look a tad high. I placed a sample point where shown here and adjusted curves; before/after values in the info palette. Although the snow was the "target," the effect enhanced the bird's colors nicely, I think.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4636/curves.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9140/owly.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Rich:

Very nice owl. Love the pose. I would be tempted to remove the snag on the left, above the birds right wing.

Lovely.

Randy

[Ramon M. Casares]

Stunning, pose, stunning light, stunning detail. Just congratulaitons form me :)

[Mike Lentz]

I agree, a wonderful image and my preference is for whiter snow as well.

[Grady Weed]

I cant add much here. Just an excellent image. The background is not too bad, not ideal, but a keeper. You made out today. I do not mind the bait, so long as no injury occurs later because of it. Thanks for revealing it and also for posting the image.