Female Great Horned Owl - Cortez, CO

[Fred J. Lord]

7:32 AM Saturday, May 10, 2008
1D Mark III - 500 f/4 + 1.4X TC II, ISO 400, 1/640 @ f/5.6, low sun, no flash.
She had two chicks in a nearby budding cottonwood. They were impossible to get a good angle on. She cooperated here for about ten minutes before becoming anxious. We then departed.
This was one of the Ute Mountain/Mesa Verde Birding Festival tours.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I wish you had a straight on stare, the head up angle is bummer IMO. The image seems quite yellow, I'm used to a richer brown when it comes to these guys (even the perch shows yellow). Great looking bird, and I am glad you recognized the bird's anxiety and decided to let it be :-)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Fred Agree with Daniel !! Could add a slight contrast boos might be helpful !!

There is a cast in the image. Difficult to judge in the bird but check the bg?

btw if you can send me your full name I could do the update. We are trying to have all members with full names or last name and two initials, Thanks.

[Fred J. Lord]

The color cast was from the extreme early morning sunlight. I will work on it since the errant color cast was accentuated when I converted for the web. I have several images where she looked directly at the camera but the catchlights in her eyes disappeared. I suppose I could clone some in from the other frames. Thank you for your constructive comments.
Fred

[Grady Weed]

Yellow cast mentioned. Keep working this one. And thanks for posting.