First of the Year Short-Eared Owl

[Steve Large]

Here is the first short-eared owl flight image of the season. Not a lot of them this year as compared to the last two years. Taken at Boundary Bay B.C. on December 7, 2013.
Stats: EOS-1 D Mark4, 600 IS2, ISO800, f/8, 1/1600sec.

Take care and good light,

Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Steve like the slight banking angle and the crop compliments the image IMHO. Personally I would like to have the head more 'head on' but that's in an ideal world. Might look at removing the hint of blue creeping in on the trailing white plumage of the wings.

I hope they stay for February & March.

TFS
Steve

[Steve Large]

Hi Steve like the slight banking angle and the crop compliments the image IMHO. Personally I would like to have the head more 'head on' but that's in an ideal world. Might look at removing the hint of blue creeping in on the trailing white plumage of the wings.

I hope they stay for February & March.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your comment. Pretty harsh light that day so kind of hard to get the images just right. Kind of brisk too at -10 celcius and a slight breeze.

Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Think you did well, hopefully the wind gave them more of a 'gliding' pattern, I like the warm light & backdrop colours, seems to dovetail with the colouring of the SEO nicely.

Can be bracing there to say the least , but I hope the break ins to cars has stopped, just don't leave any valuables in the location.

[keith mitchell]

Steve cool in more ways than one, looks like very good flight shot on a very nice looking BG, the curve on the wings really adds movement.
No luck with these birds for me this year.

Keith.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Colors work well together here, good comp. I am OK with the head angle, except a bit more light on dark side would have been nice.

Quite impressive how long their wings are.

Cheers

Randy

[Shawn Zierman]

Great choice of crop as it really accentuates the length of the wings. Deluxe flight image. Well controlled background giving great subject isolation. Love the focus in the eyes.

[Arthur Morris]

Wish it were mine. Love the angled position of the bird in the frame, the nice light, and the killer sharpness. Hey, and the great BKGR. Let me know what you think of the repost.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent sharp details, intense incoming pose and sharp details, I wish the sun was behind you and I like Artie's repost lifting the shadows (minus the noise) which can be removed if you start from RAW

TFS

[Jamie Douglas]

Nice one Steve and I think Arties repost pulls out a little more detail in the shadows. Certainly sounds like BB is picking up again this year and I am hoping to get out that way this weekend at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Maybe see you out there one day.

Jamie

[Steve Large]

Wish it were mine. Love the angled position of the bird in the frame, the nice light, and the killer sharpness. Hey, and the great BKGR. Let me know what you think of the repost.

Hi Artie,
Really like what you did with the right hand side of the face to even out the shadows. Can't see the noise that Arash is talking about though. Did you do anything on that?

Steve

[Steve Large]

Nice one Steve and I think Arties repost pulls out a little more detail in the shadows. Certainly sounds like BB is picking up again this year and I am hoping to get out that way this weekend at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Maybe see you out there one day.

Jamie

Hi Jamie,
Keep your eye open for those long-eared owls around 64th street. They were dug in pretty deap last weekend so I wouldn't even attempt to post my images of them here. Basically just got some head shots with lots of branches and shadows in the way. Norm Ng got some nice shots though of one out in the open on a post in the snow. Lucky devil.

Take care and good light,

Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes lovely shot I like the pose, the repost works well lifting the shadows, very few owls around my neck of the wood at the moment - was going down to today but the light is too dull.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, Really like what you did with the right hand side of the face to even out the shadows. Can't see the noise that Arash is talking about though. Did you do anything on that? Steve

I rarely concern myself with noise unless it is mega-objectionable (which it is not here to me). I selected the dark shadowed areas with the Quick Selection Tool, ran a Layer of NIK Detail Extractor at about 80%, and pulled up the curve a bit. Then fine-tuned the edges with a Regular Layer Mask.

[Holger Leyrer]

That is a great pose and wonderful details. I like Artis repost.