Great Gray Owl

[Raymond Lee]

In the past weeks, we had an irruption of Great Gray Owls north of our city. On Saturday, we found nine Great Gray's in total. In fact, we got six GGOw's in the first three hours of our driving. Two of the nine were cooperative for photos. The lighting wasn't fantastic that day, but I think it suits these owls very well. The owl above is the third one we encountered and the most cooperative one.

Canon EOS 7D | Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS + Kenko 1.4x Teleplus PRO 300 DGX + Canon Extender EF 1.4x II
Manual mode, 1/800 sec., f/7.1, ISO 800, E-TTL Flash with Better Beamer @ -1, on tripod.

All C&Cs are welcome!

Thanks,
Raymond

[Dennis Zaebst]

Beautiful image of a beautiful owl Raymond. The BG is so light that it looks like it must have been backlit...so the flash was a good idea and very well handled. Nicely done!

[Jim Crosswell]

Sounds like you had a great day. I like the eye contact, sharpness, perch and composition. Excellent image Raymond!

[Arthur Morris]

I love the minimalistic, high key look and the image design. SH & EXP perfect. Good on the tripod. How did you figure your exposure?

All in all, excellente!

[Raymond Lee]

I love the minimalistic, high key look and the image design. SH & EXP perfect. Good on the tripod. How did you figure your exposure?

All in all, excellente!

Because of the stale winter lighting, I didn't have to worry too much about where the sun is. I did a pre-exposure test against half sky and half mix woods first before photographing the owl. If I remember correctly, the meter reads about +2 to +2 1/3 if I aim at the sky.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Raymond,
I like the high key look of the bg, and the detail throughout the image. The perch seems to be a bit small for the owl, not in a photographic sense - I'm just surprised they can hold their balance that well!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Looks pretty good to me too! Stunning owl, love those eyes and the skinny perch!

[Loi Nguyen]

Fantastic shot. I love the details and the comp.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image.Very nice over the shoulder pose,great looking eye,nice colors and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose and I also like the simple composition

can't wait to get up there for these gorgeous birds.

[gail bisson]

I really like the simple comp and diagonal line created by the branch.
Gail

[Joe Senzatimore]

Just so simple , it is KILLER". Light is fantastic.

[Karl Egressy]

Great image, Raymund. The exposure and details are great.

[Jonathan Ashton]

First class image well exposed super detail and equally good pose eye contact couldn't be better, all in all a real cracker of a shot!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well done on this one, especially that I love high key images and this one looks great. Looks like it was perched higher than you were, but with the head tilted downwards you it looks quite fine this way.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Raymond, good eye contact, and a vertical was the only choice of comp with this pose. Lovely thin diagonal perch, and yes the lighter BG works well.

[Kiran Poonacha]

loved the frame in all... looks beautiful..

[Raymond Lee]

Thanks everyone! I indeed had a great day!

Raymond,
I like the high key look of the bg, and the detail throughout the image. The perch seems to be a bit small for the owl, not in a photographic sense - I'm just surprised they can hold their balance that well!

I've seen them perched on a very thin weak branch, and they can still balance very well. That day, I only saw one GGOw perched on a power pole, and I thought it wasn't common.

Well done on this one, especially that I love high key images and this one looks great. Looks like it was perched higher than you were, but with the head tilted downwards you it looks quite fine this way.

Yeah it was elevated for sure. Shooting with a longer focal length plus the downward-tilted head sure minimize the impact of elevation.

[Bill Dix]

As you say, small perch for a big bird, but it makes for a very handsome, minimalist image. Excellent work with exposure and flash. No nits from me.