What A "Great" Way To Start 2013...Great Gray Owl!!
Photographed on January 1st, this was a real treat. I have a box full of slides form the 2004-05 GGO invasion, but nothing since then...it sure feels good to post-process images of this species. This fella was about 20 feet up in a hemlock, but luckily there is a hill right next to the tree, so climbing that got me to eye level with this guy. Close, too...this is full-frame, but no full body images of this fella as it was blocked by branches. Not to worry...he was not the only one there I have another image of this fella staring straight into the lens (which I may post tomorrow), but I love this particular head angle on this species...
Canon 7D + 100-400 @330mm, manual exposure, evaluative metetring, natural light, handheld, 1/125s., f/6.3, ISO 800, filled in the top right corner with clone stamp (edit: which I now see a repeating pattern darn it), and a very faint small OOF branch content-awared out on the lower part of plumage.
I am having trouble objectively critiquing this image because I am SOOOOO...jealous. I have never seen a GGO and want to jump on a plane and have you take me to this spot!
I love the head position on the owl and the cozy, tucked in feeling it evokes.
IQ is lovely as well. Great light as well touching the wing and brow.
I do wish the green OOF leaves did not intersect the body but that is a minor nit.
Congrats on finding this beauty,
Gail
What a beautiful pose, and light to die for. Terrific detail. Great way to start the year! I would just love to see (and photograph) one of these guys some day. The URC did give me a feeling that it had been worked on -- I thought maybe you had blurred it -- but I wouldn't have noticed the repeating pattern had you not pointed it out. Easy to fix. Congrats on a fine bird and image. Can't wait to see the next one.
Beautiful image of this awesome owl. Great light and exposure control. Love the stare and the eyes are well lit. Detail is very sharp and clean. Cant chose our BGs but its natural. The green blade on the body is a nit but not bad. I think with your PP skills it could be removed. Very nice and look forward to more.
Dan this is real stunner of an image it really grabs my attention. I would not have noticed the cloning artefact you referred to had you not mentioned it - my eyes were transfixed on the owl. There are a couple of grey patches on his shoulder - are these OOF branches, despite that I think this is an absolute delight -a feast for the eyes!
Great image, has a feel of it looking at prey on the ground. As mentioned by other slight nit with the oof green branch but that goes with where they live. The light shows how much brown they have in their plumage which isn't always noticable.
Amazing image Daniel. It's wonderful that the feeling of intimacy is still there even though the owl is looking in a direction different than at the camera. I wish we had these here. Great work!
You lot are killing me with the Owl shots ! Lovely head angle I think, sharp and great eyes......maybe clone out the oof grass or crop to just above it ?
I like how he is looking down like 'Really?'! These guys can be tough to get a portrait of and are so much fun to view and photograph. I like that you included the snow and branch to frame the bottom of the image.
Hi Dan, what a 'great' looking Owl, and I like the concentrated stare. The detail in the face is superb, and looks like the light was nice and soft. Congrats on finding this beauty.
What A "Great" Way To Start 2013...Great Gray Owl!!
I have another image of this fella staring straight into the lens (which I may post tomorrow), but I love this particular head angle on this species...
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Lovely head angle I think, sharp and great eyes......maybe clone out the oof grass or crop to just above it ?
