"The Balerina"

[paul leverington]

Man I wish I could have a Mark IV in my hands when this shot was taken.
Location: Brigantine National Wildlife Area
The story goes--I was at Barnegat light during the weekday shooting harlequins when this elderly lady stopped to ask me what I was shooting. After I told her about the harley's, she told me that she had just come from Brigantine that morning and saw a snowy owl there. Huh!!!! A few more minutes with her trying to get the specific location at the refuge and it was Pa---chinnnngggggg---exit stage right!----pedal to the metal! How I managed not to get a ticket beats me--it took an hour and fifteen minutes for the drive. And hoping and praying the whole time she would still be there. It wasn't hard to spot her when I got there with this dark brown enviornment. The day was non stop heavy drizzle so everything was wet with color saturation. Nice. For the next 8 hours I had her all to myself. Me, the bird, the camera--double nice. Close to 800 shots. Here she's shaking off the water with some wing flapping. I'm in the moat between the road and the island she's on, in my waders, sinking fast and bad in the mud. Kind of scary really cause there were times I seriously doubted that I could get myself unstuck. The whole time your shooting your sinking constantly in the mud till your in it up to your pockets. Moving for position right or left was a very major undertaking. The tripod was sinking even faster than me. I fell over into the water many times not being able to move my feet to catch my balance. Great fun!!

MarkII 600+1.4X(840) 1/160@f6.3 ISO 400

I like this shot for the unusual colored background for a snowy owl to be in, plus the bg has great interest and mood with all those knarly dark sticks and tree remnants. Of course I wish I had something on the right to balance out the tree on the left, there just wasn't anything. And she really liked this perch--as you can see it looks quite stable and comfortable.

[Scott Grant]

Paul, a tremendous image!

love the story behind the image as i can imagine your excitement and fears!

i really like this image as it takes on an almost mystical quality. my only qualm is the two branches intersecting the birds right wing.

thanks for posting. :)

[Harshad Barve]

One amazing image Paul,
Lovely perch pose and killer BG , thanks for not cleaning it :D
IMHO blurred wing adds much to drama , I mine I may boost contrast
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

This photo is really exceptional, super action, colors, BG and take off position all are super. A great story too. detail and sharpness is right on money. Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Lentz]

Wonderful image, Paul. I really like the way the Snowy pops against the BG!
Did you do some selective blurring on this image? if so, it looks great!

[Stu Bowie]

Superb symmetrical wingspread, and love the direct eye contact. The snowy pops so well from the BG, and what a cool curved perch. How I wish the wood on the left didnt go through the wing tip. Exceptional image Paul.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Seems to me like you worked your subject as best you could and I'm not sure how a Mark IV could have improved this image (at least as posted) :-) Really neat pose, and an apt title to accompany it. I enjoyed the write-up too.

[paul leverington]

Hi Mike--no blurring bud--but before I go on, please tell me why you say that. It's importantant to me to hear a purely objective observation to know whats working or not working. Then I'll get to splaining things.

Paul

[Randy Stout]

Paul:

Striking image, neat (scary) story.

One of my first thoughts about the image was the same sense Mike had, that you had done some post processing blurring of the image to isolate the bird. In looking at it longer, I think it is caused by OOF foreground elements, and a fairly shallow plane of focus.

Randy

[paul leverington]

I'm totally with everyone on the branch through the wing, but i cringe to the thought about removing it. I hate all the PS work to do it, would prefer to leave things as they were ethically, and wonder really if it would look better to actually add balancing elements to the right side and maybe a little behind her too. Mostly to retain the mood of the bg and even play upon it even heavier than it is now. Plus, for me, it would be easier to do an add process than removal one. But this shot may warrant such edits--I'm thinking--maybe. The background can add so much to the power of an image that it seems cleaning it up here would sterilize things too much. Open to opinions though.

Paul

[paul leverington]

Ok thanks Randy--things look funky up front. Thats what I was looking for. What happened is something I wish I could go back and do right. The actual full frame was just able to get the bird in, so I had to shoot the surrounding enviorment. I was set up for still portraits of her when she did this wing flap thing so I was in too close. Any kind of quick repositioning was completely impossible so I shot all around her to get some BG. Why, or how I botched the expanded frames around her I don't know. Maybe I hit the focus ring accidentally while trying not to die, but I had to ride with what I got in post process, which is frames not exact correct DOF that they should be. Maybe between this fact, and perhaps needing to add balancing elements on the right, the comp might be greatly improved by importing heavily from shots taken of other areas there. Hate doing that, but this one might seriously need it and be justified.

Paul

[Randy Stout]

Paul:

A couple additional thoughts.

1) The mood of this image to me is dark and foreboding. The multiple diagonal lines, overall tone of the image, somewhat desolate look, all heighten that sense. I visualize it as a witches familiar giving warning to an intruder. I know that doesn't jive with your chosen title, but that is how it effects me.

2)in regard to the large branch behind the right wing. I think it might be worth a try to selectively blur it, and the two sticks just to the left in the image, and the grass at their base. I think that if carefully done, it wouldn't look unnatural, and would match the feel of the other side of the image re: DOF and out of focus elements. I might also dodge the main trunk of the large snag enough to reduce its contrast a bit so that it doesn't stand out so strongly against the wing.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

Excellent pose and great story telling :)
The bird looks huge!!!
I find the trunk on the left a bit distracting and maybe Randy's suggestion would make an outstanding image even better. Congrats!

[Keith Bauer]

Reading your story, I had to stop and make sure I wasn't drooling on my keyboard :p 8 hours with a magnificent snowy owl!! :) Love the image and the slight motion in the wing tips. The branch is just one of those things in this image that, while not perfect, doesn't hurt that much. The environment here looks great. Another very nice image

[paul leverington]

Randy--your ideas are spot on I feel. I NEVER thought to do some blurring--I can't even tell you why not. Huge improvement ---and this was an on the fly workover. I am convinced now to go back and improve this image bg from the start and see what I can do with it. I blurred in lens blur, selectively ligtened with a reverse contrast curves layer and mask on the snag, and upped the saturation globally just a tad in hopes of brightening the mood a bit. Consider this my official halloween shot for you all--"Phantom of the Snowyopera"!!!

Thanks Randy--I love this shot and appreciate your help in getting just that much closer to everything that it can be.

[paul leverington]

Reading your story, I had to stop and make sure I wasn't drooling on my keyboard :p 8 hours with a magnificent snowy owl!! :) Love the image and the slight motion in the wing tips. The branch is just one of those things in this image that, while not perfect, doesn't hurt that much. The environment here looks great. Another very nice image

And Keith--don't forget about how much fun I had being stuck in the mud all that time. The pigs down on the farm didn't have much on me that day--I couldn't have been happier!

Paul

[Vivek Khanzode]

Holy smokes! What a shot and story to go with it. I envy you Paul! Thanks for sharing the shot as well as the story.

I still prefer the first one; to me the "circular" blur looks artificial. I would add it uniformly except the bird...

Thanks again

-- Vivek

[Morkel Erasmus]

one amazing shot! pin sharp where it needs to be with the wing blur taking it over the top. the owl stands out very nicely with its contrasting colours.

[denise ippolito]

Paul, The perch and the pose are fantastic! The story wasn't half bad either-Great job photographing this beauty. The BG colors and mood are great! The repost is a subtle improvement.

[Duane Noblick]

If you focus on the eyes nothing will bother you in the other parts of the image. ;) I like it as is. Very unusual pose and a great undertaking to capture this.

[Kiran Khanzode]

Too good, you nailed it, thx for the story !!

[Arthur Morris]

Unique and dramatic.

[Doug Brown]

Perhaps one of the better Snowy Owl images I've ever seen! Haunting!

[Daniel Belasco]

Hi Paul
The most spectacular image I've seen on this site to date!
I probably like the OP better than the repost. It looks more natural.
You said the owl was shaking off raindrops by fluttering it's wings, thus the 3 droplets above the right wing, but since I don't see any other droplets in th image (maybe 1 under the right wing) I would think about clonning them out. If you wanted to leave the droplets in, then maybe come up with a title so the viewer would realize it was after a rain.
Love the sf like environment as a result of the stiched additions to fill out the frame. Also like the unbalanced tree parts on the left. The image doesn't need a corresponding balance on the right. We don't need everything in perfect balance. After all this is the natural world.
Beautiful job on the whites and the yellow eyes could just cut through you.
Bravo and mucho congrats.
regards
dan

[paul leverington]

Daniel interesting observation about the rain drops. I'm thinking that more show up in the tiff than you can see in the jpg here. Something I should think about. Really there should be more I feel to give one a better sense of the reality of the day. Thanks for the comment.

Paul