Boreal Owl...What A Cutie!

[Daniel Cadieux]

2013 has been wonderful for owls so far. This was photographed in February, just a few days before the location was made very public and the area "victim" of a bit too much negative attention. It was tucked in next to the trunk, very low light, and only two "keyholes" that permitted good enough photos (one larger one for full-body, and this one for a full-frame head portrait). My first ever sighting of this species!

Canon 7D + 100-400L @380mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/80s., f/6.3, ISO 1600, fill-flash @ -1.3 FEC, handheld, darkened the green foliage in LLC.

[Bonnie Block]

Lovely image, Daniel. The splash of green works well for me. I might be tempted to try taking just a tiny bit more off of the top of the image.

[Troy Lim]

Tight but a great find...always enjoy your work

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

He is a cutie no doubt. nice detail & I like the eye contact.

[arash_hazeghi]

oh man this fellow was such a treat. excellent job despite the tough light and perch conditions

[PhilCook]

Yep, very cute Daniel, like the squinty eyes.....wishing the dof was a little deeper as the outline is a bit fuzzy and there's something a bit funny going on top right of the head, or maybe just the shallowish dof again

[Bill Dix]

Congrats on seeing this species. Very nice capture, with the head clear of surrounding veggies. And amazingly sharp at 380mm. Would love to see one some day.

[adrian dancy]

A cutie for sure....nice work.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact.