Snowy Owl - My First

[Loi Nguyen]

After seeing the many amazing images of snowy owls here, i was dying for an opportunity to be in Ottawa. Luckily, a business trip came up and I immediately contacted Daniel to arrange for a couple of days of shooting. The weather was perfect. We had partial cloudy/sunshine conditions for the first two days and two cooperative snowy owls.

1DX
70-200f2.8 II + 1.4X III @ 280mm
1/3200
f8
ISO-800
Handheld
Owl was baited

I adjusted WB to get a pure white on the face of the owl
Increased exposure by 0.48EV in LR5
Applied warm filter (81), 6% density to the snow. Thanks Arash for the tip.
Rotated image CW
Levels, Curves, added a small amount of saturation to the blue sky.

We had many excellent opportunities, so there will be many more to come!

Appreciate your comments.

Thanks a ton, Daniel. I had the best of time in Ottawa! It was cold and I suffered with cold fingers for a little bit, but it was well worth it. I will be better prepared next time.

Loi

[gail bisson]

Great image Loi.
Excellent IQ and processing.
I like the treeline in the BG. I envy you the sunlight!
I might be tempted to evict the snowball on the snow under Clementine's right wing but not a deal breaker by any means,
Gail

[Mike Tracy]

I like the curvature of the wings and tree line. I wish where the snow met the background it didnt circumvent the owl.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - nicely captured. I like the head-on view, the wing spread and the bit of habitat.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Great image Loi.
Excellent IQ and processing.
I like the treeline in the BG. I envy you the sunlight!
I might be tempted to evict the snowball on the snow under Clementine's right wing but not a deal breaker by any means,
Gail

Hi Gail, this is not Clementine. She is a new snowy just appearing in the area. She is a bit darker and gave us many photo ops that first afternoon.

Hi Mike, these snowy fly in very low to the ground and I was already lying flat, so not much I could do with respect to the shooting angle. Kneeling is an option, but I kind of liking this angle as it is more direct contact with a straight on pose.


thank you everyone for your comments

Loi

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Loi, it was a pleasure meeting you...glad you had fun despite the cold fingers! I like the low angle you got here, and at that spot we had some good habitat in the background. Details and exposure look good, I really like the curled primaries. I'd surely remove the "snowball" beneath the wing (I think it's actually a mouse though), and maybe crop a tad above. Looking forward to more!

[Graeme Cox]

WOW that is a great image. I would love to get cold fingers for such a capture.

[ThomasChadwick]

Great image! Love the eye contact and the low flight position. I would clone out some of the distracting elements on the ground.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Congratulations on your first capture here. I really like this Loi. I like how the owl curves along with the line of the snow against the tree line. Great look at the eyes as well.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Here is a repost.

1. Cloned out the "snow ball" and some smudges near the tree line

2. Cropped a little at the top.

Looks better I think.

Loi

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Excellent capture Loi, Congrats. I like the RP better for sure. And you got the exposure and techs just right. Well done.

[Marina Scarr]

Killer image and really like the RP. Your BG environment works so well with this flight pose!

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent incoming flight with great IQ.Very nice BG, environment and composition.

Regards,
Satish.