I found this young Boreal Owl deep in Mt. Rainier National Park in August, 2016. A family group of five was very active in the area, and while I unfortunately missed capturing the adult-juvenile food exchange, it was still an amazing night. Now I just need to photograph the adult at night.
Postprocessing:
Usual sliders, blacked out a couple intruding sticks in the BG, crop for comp, sharpening on bird, NR on BG
Tech:
Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f4
Nikon SB-910 (TTL, -1.3EV)
handheld
ISO 500
SS 1/800
f/7.1
I've come back to this one 3 times before commenting. Details are very nice and the owl really stands out against that black background. I'm not crazy about the trunk of the tree on the left. I think it overpowers the bird too much. I went to Rainier last summer and a friend showed me a spot where she has had Boreal Owls before but we unfortunately did not see any. Seeing a family unit with 3 babies must have been amazing. I have only seen this species twice. Once in Canada and the famous bird that spent a number of days in Central Park!
Isaac - thanks for the feedback. I took out the trunk and recomposed in post. I like the result but I am not sure if it takes it too far away from how the bird was in the field.