Just another wet day!

[Steve Kaluski]

This was the first day shoot without Todd Frost, I will post one from that day at an appropriate time.

Taken on one of the worst days of last month I have ever encountered, the rain was torrential, bitterly cold winds and after 4 hours everything was saturated in rain, but the gear kept working, a testimony to the build of Canon's gear. Early morning approx 8.56am. You can just see the streaks of the rain in the BKG to add more interest to the image and hopefully it conveys the conditions.

Also my thanks to Dave Leroy for his help & kind offers of assistance.

Steve
Subject: Two Snowy Owls saturated in rain on drift wood (Bubo scandiacus)
Location: BC, Canada
Camera: Canon MKIV
Lens: 500f/4 - Gitzo tripod/Wimberley head
Exposure: 1/250s at f/5.6 ISO1250 +1/3 stop compensation
Crop: Slight crop (original capture vertical)

[Doug Brown]

I like the way you positioned yourself relative to the owls so that they perfectly overlapped one another. Sharpness of the near bird is good, and I don't mind that the far bird is OOF. I would have preferred a shooting angle that put both birds on either a sky or a ground BG. A real shame about Todd. But at least he got to spend his last day doing something he loved in the company of friends.

[Don Nelson]

I agree with Doug -- its far stronger if the sky was removed.
Here's a (ignore fast masking around upper owl) version with the sky replaced with background tonalitycopied, streched canvas, light Gaussian blur to this region only, gradient applied to a levels adjustment mask).
You will likely need to recrop a bit.
Your work on original raw will be superior -- and you'll take more time and have more (edge) pixels to make a better mask of the birds
I like the owls as they are. Nicely seen.
.

[Conrad Tan]

Good to see they are still up there!

[gail bisson]

Hi Steve,
I am glad you made it to Canada to see these beauties.
I like the vertical composition and the hint of green on the log in LLC. I was not crazy about the sky line cutting through the OOF rear owl and Don's repost adresses this issue for me. I like the identical poses but wish that both owls were sharp ( obviously not possible). That's more of my personal taste though,
Gail

[dankearl]

I would love to get two in a frame, i like Don's repost and I would crop some off the top.

[Roger Clark]

Hi Steve,
Very interesting and different composition (I like it). But I would have liked to see the far bird also in good focus. Did you happen to photograph the far bird in focus? If so, then you could focus stack and increase the depth of field. Or image at f/16 or so.

Roger

[jack williamson]

The quality on the owls and the logs is outstanding. I really like Dons' version of the BG. I would have really like to have seen some of Todds' shots from this trip.

Jack

[Jamie Douglas]

Hi Steve

Talk about brutal weather. I have to say the horizon does draw my eyes more towards the OOF owl rather than the nice and sharp guy in the FG. Given the light I am not sure shooting at F16 would have been an option considering the strength of the wind at the bay unless you bumped up the ISO and then you would loose the IQ.

While I like the BG fill in the repost this isnt going to be an option considering the loss of the rain drops that add depth to the original post.

All is all I do like this and I am sure you will have some other gems from the day that you will share.

Jamie

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Doug, to have got the solid, darkish BKG I would have had to shoot down and therefore the angle would have been lost for me. Similar to those shots from people who take African wildlife where you know they have taken it from a vehicle as the angle is looking down. Perhaps with hindsight's it's not ideal, but it's always worth doing whilst out in the field, as you never know. There will be others that I will post with a solid/diffused BKG which I think will be more fitting.

Don appreciate the rework. Although it probably improves things, it's not a direction I will pursue, purely on the basis of the amount of rework require, (not that it's difficult), more to the extent of changing the image, just a personal thing for me.

Roger based on the techs, shooting f/16 was not an option as SS was key, and the weather really was not on our side. Will be looking through the second batch with Todd & Jamie soon, as the weather was kinder to us then.

Jamie, yep I think there are one or two in the bag, but need to do another trawl. Will drop you a line for 2013 later today.

Thanks again folks.
Steve

[Dave Leroy]

Nice one Steve. The weather certainly can add to the fun and challenges around here. I like the nice positioning of the two owls. They look nice and relaxed. Looking forward to seeing some of the others that you, Jamie and Todd were able to get.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Dave, you know the conditions and the location, sometimes you win sometime you don't and that day I would take everything I could get, then assess back home.

The owls seem to be quite relaxed, but that might have been the weather, or hopefully us giving them the space and respect. The second shoot was better weather wise, but sadly marred by the sudden and tragic death of Todd that night, so know one will get to see his POV on these birds and I know how eager he was to get back on here to post and more importantly play his part in the BPN Community that he loved.

Perhaps we can hook up next year?

Steve

[Robert Holguin]

Real nice shot. I really like the perch, great poses on both birds, great comp, and I really like the repost best.
Well done.