Snowy Owl

[Dave Leroy]

I took this yesterday morning. Although not the best setting for a perch or bg, I thought I would post as hopefully the first of the season. We don't always get Snowies. Cropped vertical from horizontal with a bit extra off top. 50D, 500f/4 at f/5.6, 1/500 and ISO200. The eyes are not quite making direct contact, but it is the closest I had to both eyes and still did some work on them. Dave

[denise ippolito]

Dave, Beautiful owl and BG colors. I like the lighting in the BG and think maybe I would clone just that one twig on the left that is in focus. Are the catchlights real? Nice details and sharpness.

[Don Anderson]

Jealous, I just haven't found one that I can get
close to. Nice capture, I agree the bright weed
to the left is distracting. Clone or really darken.
Nice sharp, his R eye is a little weird, pupil too
small?

[Paul Lagasi]

None have been seen here yet but soon...nice image, sharp, as you said not he best perch..something funky with eye on left..thanks

[Dave Leroy]

Thanks folks.
The only things I did to eyes were for owls left eye, I extended the yellow a bit intot he shadow area not touching pupil. For the owls right eye because of the feathers and angle of the head there was no yellow between pupil and beak side, so I again extended a bit of yellow in that area.
Perhaps it looks odd because owl is not looking at camera but over my left shoulder.
Lesson learned.
Hi Denise, yes catch lights are real. We have had sun for a few days so pretty nice. Dave

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Such gorgeous eyes and striking lighting. Love the environment that is included in this image. Fine work.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the sidelight. The image is sharp with a good EXP but the whole BKGR is pretty much an image-killer for me.

[Ray Rozema]

Regarding the unequal pupil size I think it is because birds pupils function somewhat independent of each other. Thus if one eye is in more light than the other the pupils will constrict accordingly. Our pupils have consensual repsonse thus are equal ( in the abscence of nuerological disorders) even if the light exposure is not equal on both eyes. BTW great image Another vote for dealing wiht some of the bright weeds but the BKGR reflects the eviroment. TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Beautiful whites and yellow eyes, love the details on the bird, I'd remove the two lower weeds and the big bright one. TFS

[Steve Large]

Hi Dave,
Nice shot even if people think the background is a bit busy. I think I would be quite happy with this if it were mine as some of my old shots from 2006 are not up to par. I like the light as well as the feather detail and the eyes turned out good as well. I see that you are from Delta. Is this photo near Bounday Bay/ 76th street? Have there been any more sightings over there as regards these guys? I wouldn't mind making the trip from over here in Nanaimo sometime.

Thanks,

Steve

[Dave Leroy]

Thanks everyone for comments. I agree that the bg and perch are less than ideal.
An interesting comment by Ray about the pupil sizes may be different. I had not realized that will keep that in mind.
Thank you to Artie on his recent posts about his technigue for using the sliders in ACR. They seemed to work here. Much appreciated.
Steve this owl was over on Brunswick Point, on the Roberts Bank side right out on the edge. It is the only one I have seen and I have been checking at 72nd Street. The Harriers were not too happy to see it.
Dave

[Steve Large]

Thanks Dave,
You will often notice owls with different pupil size. This is natural even though it might look weird to us as their eyes act differently than ours. They can compensate for light in each individual pupil where we tend to adjust pupils symaltaneously. It seems to happen in a lot of my Short Eared Owl shots as well. That owl may have been the same one they sighted a couple of weeks ago in the "Rare Bird Alert" at Iona Island Park - same area?

Steve