Snowy owl with Dinner

[Grace Scalzo]

From what I can tell, this prey might have been a Long Tailed Duck. I removed a pole from the background, cleaned up an edge where a piece of goldenrod entered the frame and cleaned up the dune a bit. Otherwise, as taken. This particular owl was not cooperative at all, hence the 2x.

Thanks for looking and for your comments.

1/1250, f8, iso800
Canon 1DX, 600f4 + 2.0 tc + rrs tripod

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image Grace,
the power of this bird is very nicely captured here,light is fantastic
love the IQ and the superb wing spread, really love the feathers on the feet that are captured here along with the particles of the sand
the HA may have been better but then wildlife is something we can't control and just need to hope for the best , love the image over all

[keith mitchell]

Grace just a little head turn would have been icing on the cake,i still think you have captured the action very well, it's a real good image.

Keith.

[Duane Noblick]

Nice natural behavior image. I've only seen one other Snowy Owl image with prey so it's nice to see this one. I do wish for a better head angle but there was nothing you could do about it. Excellent light, lifting sand and I like the fanned out wings. I agree with the prey ID...seen one Long-tailed Duck carcass on the beach where I photograph Snowy Owls.

[Marina Scarr]

What a terrific opportunity you had here,Grace, and you did a great job capitalizing on it. You were blessed with terrific light, a nice pose, enough of the eye to make it work, and what a plus to have the prey. I find an important element of this image to be the trail of dirt/sand/snow.

[Karl Egressy]

The diagonal fully stretched wing position work well for the image.
Nice that you managed to capture it with a natural prey, Grace.

[Julie Brown]

Great capture, Grace. Nice composition and the small details make the shot. Sweet light as well. Your RRS tripod served you well!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace, lovely take off pose with the wings stretched across the frame, and captured in soft light. A good view of the kill, and as Marina stated, the flying dirt adds a lot to the image. Of course more eye contact wouldnt have harmed the image.

[dankearl]

Nice to see something different with all these Owls!
I missed you and checked out your personal sites the other day and saw these.
Glad you posted here, we needed a dose of the reality of these predator raptors.
They aren't just the cute birds as shown on the nightly news!

[gail bisson]

Sweet light, sweet take-off pose and great BG. Awesome to see the prey in the talons.
Just wish for a bit more eye contact ,
Gail

[Holger Leyrer]

All is said to this wonderful image.
For me works the eye contact very well. Congratulation.

[David Salem]

Nice looking take off pose Grace. I like the prey in the feet and the trail of dirt looks cool. Exposure and details look good and the eye is visible enough to make it work. Nice one.