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.
Wow! This is so humbling! I need to pinch myself I think. Right up front I want to say to the great crew here that even though I though I had my images to a point as good as they could get, the commentary by all of you, and well thought out suggestions, brought up many things that I never had even considered-especially on this image. Bottom line, this site and the participants here by participating, made the images and my own creative thinking process better for the expirience. For this I am endlessly grateful. Some times when I look at a shot for too long it becomes hard to see it anymore. Fresh eyes and willing participation by others jolt the creative process once more.
Very good stuff on this site, and it is my sincere hopes that it just gets better and better as it separates from the pack and becomes all that it can be. Truly a place one can learn. A place where the artistic side of image taking is placed at the top of the priority list and not so forgotten as with other sites.
And I hope and look forward to meeting the many of you as I make my photographic sojourns.
Dear Paul, congratulations on your THIRD IOW in a row, WOW!!!!
And thanks for our kind words about the site, we put our dreams and best efforts into it and it's very rewarding to hear appreciation.
I was always a fan of your photos and writings, keep it up and share some more!!!
As you said the backgound mood really enhances the shot but what realy makes it for me is the great seperation of the owl from the rest of the scene bought about by the DOF
Congratulations. Beautiful image! And, great story to go with it. I often wish nature photographers had sidekicks to take photos of the photographers taking the photos. :-)
Avian IOTW 10/23/09 Paul Leverington
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