Great Gray Owl

[Mike Veltri]

Great Gray Owl


Canon 1Dx - 300mm F/2.8
1/4000s @ F/5.6 ISO 1600

A six hour drive to our nations capital was well worth it to see these beautiful owls.
At -27 celsius or -16 Fahrenheit it sure was cold out, but its funny that when your shooting you forget about how cold it is.

Thanks for looking,
Mike Veltri

[Nick Palmieri]

I'm with you on forgetting the cold when you are shooting! This guy is beautiful! I love the wing spread and his position in the frame. I like the trees as a BG as well. His small but sharp eye just pull you right in. Very nice.

[Randy Stout]

Mike:

A dramatic image, because of the pose and the lighting. Can you describe time of day, lighting conditions? When I first saw it I thought of very subtle flash work.

Anything special in post processing?

These guys are pretty famous. Guess we will have to change the name of the hockey team to the owls!

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Brown]

I had two 13 hour travel days to get to and from these owls, and I have to say that it was definitely worth it! I like how the bird stands out against the dark BG; was this achieved in camera or in post? Your sharpness is excellent and the head angle, fanned tail feathers and raised near wing are all positioned nicely. I only wish the head didn't merge with the far wing. When were you there?

[Mike Veltri]

It was overcast with no sun, and very cold. No flash was used and the background was darkened just a little bit to make the bird pop.
The backgrounds were not great up there, and the stubble of weeds popping up through the snow were distracting as well.
More of a distraction were the inexperience photographers, some with super teles that would walk in front of you while shooting which cost me a number of opportunities.

Cheers,
Mike

[Mike Veltri]

I had two 13 hour travel days to get to and from these owls, and I have to say that it was definitely worth it! I like how the bird stands out against the dark BG; was this achieved in camera or in post? Your sharpness is excellent and the head angle, fanned tail feathers and raised near wing are all positioned nicely. I only wish the head didn't merge with the far wing. When were you there?

Thanks for the comments Doug.
It was definitely worth the drive, and we had clear roads all the way up from Hamilton, Ontario.
I did darken the background a little bit so that the bird would be the focal point of the image.
The woods were very dark due to the overcast conditions, and the sun eventually came out around 10am.
By that time most of the owls had gone into the woods and we left for Algonquin park.
I was up there on Saturday Jan. 26th.

[Uri First]

excellent capture! loved the birds details ad the magic BG

[Satish Ranadive]

Mike:
Excellent flight pose of GGO you have captured.Love the wing position,tail feathers,artistic design on them and beautiful eye.
My only wish is,I could see some light trees in front of him(similar to the trees behind him,colors of which are well complimenting with owl),surely my personal test.
Very nice composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mike, you guys are killing me with these amazing Great Gray Owls. Another fantastic image of this species, and just love the how owl stands out against the darker BG. Good flight pose, and the angle shows off all the detail one needs to see. Sharpness spot on too. Well captured, and Im sure freezing your butt off was worth it.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Very nicely done Mike! Can't add much more to the comments above.

I would like to say that my wife jokes that when I'm shooting I have "the fire within" that keeps me warm in even the coldest of weathers!

Miguel

[Bill Dix]

You guys are driving me crazy with these owl shots. This is another beauty. Love the spread wings and tail. Darkening the bg gives this a real dramatic feeling. Personally, my trigger finger gets so cold that I can hardly press the shutter when its that cold, but for an image like this it would have been worth it.

[Brendon Cremer]

Just going to add my 2c worth, what a stunning image so very well captured, ill deal with the cold for a shot like this any day!!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Oh I love the dark BG you got here...very ghostly and apt for this owl! Nice pose, and the eye pops nicely. Glad you were able to see them...

[nick clayton]

Beautiful well lit plumage and a great angle on the tail and wings. The bird stands out very well from the darker background and I love the eye. Theres nothing I don't like about this image Mike.

[dankearl]

Striking image, my kudos with everyone else.
Nice PP work to achieve the look you wanted.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Mike! I like the details, sharpness, dark BG and composition.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Outstanding image Mike. The dark bg makes the bird pop and gives the image a nice mood. I bet this more than made up for the 6 hr drive.
Looking forward to more from your trip.

[Jack Breakfast]

Truly lovely; what a ghostly feel. If both eyes were looking at us this would be one of the best GGO pics on earth...