Great Gray in Grass

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi -

Here is another Great Gray Owl photo from Wyoming.

Canon 5D MIII
Canon 500mm

ISI 800
500mm
f/4
1/400s

I cropped about 20% total off the sides for composition. I did not make any changes in the RAW conversion, but did do some NR on the background. I also saturated the eyes a little bit and selective sharpened the face where I could.

I also am doing this image in black and white and will post that tomorrow to this thread to see what you think.

This owl had just landed in the grass missing a mouse or vole.

[keith mitchell]

Hello Ashleigh, I like your owl in the grass it looks so natural some may have a problem with the grass over the face but things don't always go just the way we would like with nature photography but that is how I like it.

Keith.

[Holger Leyrer]

I like the pose of the front owl, the gras and the BG. Wonderful image.

[gail bisson]

Hi Ashleigh,
You are so lucky to see this beautiful owl. I have yet to see one in real life so am very jealous!
I like the idea and framing of this shot. Unfortunately, the OOF grass that cuts in front of the face and eye is a real issue for me.
I also see a magenta cast which is easily fixed by going to color balance in photoshop and moving the slider by 1 or 2 points to the right towards the green,
Gail

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi everyone thank you for your comments.

Gail - thank you, I agree about the grass. When I got home from this trip, I found out that this owl was hit by a car a week later and died. I was so sad about that and I went through my images to find one that I could remember him best. This owl was really funny always peeking up at the photographers around branches and grass like this almost like "Hey did you see where that mouse went?"
But I know technically the grass out of focus is a distraction too like it was in one of my Great horned Owl pictures.

Thank you for commenting on my photo. Do you have a lot of snowy owls in Nova Scotia?

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Ashleigh! good suggestions above, try to reduce the magenta cast.

well done, I like the inclusion of habitat

[Daniel Cadieux]

Too bad about the grass passing in front of the eye, but I like the fact that this is a completely different image than what we are used to see for this species. Nicely placed in the frame too, giving a well balanced comp.