Great Gray Owl - Success!

[Graham Smith.]

This was such an awesome moment! He caught this vole after hearing it underneath a foot of snow, from his perch more than 50 feet away!. That is some incredible hearing!

Shot with Nikon D90, AF-S 300mm + 1.4TC, f/5.6, 1/2000. I removed some small twigs that were extending from behind the bird.
The lighting was very poor, so I had to shoot at iso 800.

Thanks for looking!

[Randy Stout]

Graham:

Great capture! For both you and the owl! The technicals look good, except I would try to brighten the image a bit, which should help bring out more detail in the bird and vole. I like the composition.

How long did you have to wait for this to happen? I am amazed you were able to get in this close. Were you in a blind?

Thanks so much for sharing.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

I love the action captured and the pose. I agree with Randy on lightening the subject, even the snow could go brighter. Congrats on getting the image!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree on lightening the whole image some. I would also see if you could work the eye a bit as it seems a little on the dull side of things. Selectively using the sponge tool set to saturate at about 8% opacity should liven the yellow in there. Great to see a natural prey!! Good pose, and I like the hint of habitat.

Randy, these guys (and most other boreal owls) are notoriously tame in nature. You can almost walk right up to some of them!!

[Robert Amoruso]

Great job capturing the action. I reposted with a correction to lighten it using levels (mid-tone slider) and since it looked a bit flat, medium contrast curve preset in a curves adjustment.

A lot of ways to work the tones here. One way is to set a white point on the brightest part of the snow and then bring up the tonality of the owl for a very different look.

[Graham Smith.]

Thanks for the repost Robert - the lightening improves it immensely. I must admit my original post looks much darker this morning on my work monitor, compared to my laptop last night. I need to do something about that.
Randy, I was watching him for about 45mins before he took off for this vole. As Daniel mentioned, they're quite tolerant of people. No blind needed - I was actually standing beside my car on the road!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great moment captured and that without baiting. I also like the details and composition. Robert's repost improves it a lot.

[Randy Stout]

Graham:

Thanks for the info about the capture.

It is such a strong image, I would be tempted to do just a bit of gardening on the 3-4 small twigs at the front of the bird that intersect with the owl and or vole. The rest are OK, but that is such a focal point, that it would be worth it, IMHO.

Should be easy too with the white background.

Again, a wonderful image!

Randy

[Grady Weed]

Another vote for Roberts re-post. May I ask why you were at ISO 800 and yet you were at 1/2000 for Shutter Speed? You might have been able to come down to ISO 500, +1 or 2 stops of light to bring up the exposure. I have had some pleasure to image these owls here in Maine, always against the snow or high key sky. I am not knocking your image just a suggestion. It is worth the efforts to bring it up to par.

[Graham Smith.]

Thanks for your comments Grady,
I was anticipating him leaving his perch, and wanting to get a decent shutter speed for the flight shot I bumped up my iso to 800. I don't think anything slower than 1/2000 would have been adequate since anymore wing blur would not have acceptable. Your suggestion would likely have worked, and is something I occassionally do for subjects against a bright backdrop, but I didn't know what I was going to be dealing with once the bird took to the air.

[Grady Weed]

Thanks for the explanation. It always pays to be safe.

[Arthur Morris]

Killer job of capturing the peak of the action and killer repost. There is a slight blue cast to the snow even in the repost.

[Robert Amoruso]

Killer job of capturing the peak of the action and killer repost. There is a slight blue cast to the snow even in the repost.

Agree Artie but I did the PS work in a car on a laptop while someone was driving but knew the cast was there. :)

Hard to be too exacting bouncing around. :(

Setting a white point on the snow would get rid of the cast.