Northern Hawk Owl

[Shawn Zierman]

This image is a total set up. The owl was fed live mice as part of the creating of the image.
If you have ever watched Northern Hawk Owls for any amount of time, you will know that
they swoop down from an elevated perch when hunting. Then they swoop up, often times
to the next and or nearest elevated perch in their path. A little fore thought regarding perch
placement and the flight path of the bird, and they will often land exactly where one might want
them too. The feeding/photography took place 1/4 mile off a dirt road, in a logged out area
of spruce bog. SonyA300, Sigma50/500, iso400, f9, 1/400, adjusted contrast and saturation,
ran a small amount of blur on the bg, cropped, USM.
Comments and critiques always welcome.
Regards,
Shawn Zierman.

[Satish Ranadive]

Marvelous image with lovely composition.Nice lights ,BG and natural perch. Great details on bird captured. Loved the pose of Owl and it's expression.

[Carmelo Cannova]

Terrific image Shawn. Love the fiery perch and the expressive look is priceless. Is that fog on the forefront ?
Carmelo

[dankearl]

Very nice image, the fog or whatever at the bottom detracts for me. I would crop off the bottom of the image.
The Owl looks great.
Thanks for sharing that you baited the bird, nice to know, I am not big fan of that, but you were honest in your post.

[arash_hazeghi]

Great pose, nice BG colors and a great mood plus a nice perch. I would also crop off the OOF portion of the FG and back off on sharpening the owl a bit, some areas show sharpening halos. More space between tail and the edge of the frame would be nice as well

very nice image TFS.

[christopher galeski]

nice image,like the BG,good perch,agree on comments above.well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Shawn! I like the perch, eyes, lighting and BG. I agree with taking some off the bottom and more room at the tail.

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent Pose and light, good exposure control, nice comp and good ambient.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love this species...you got it in a nice alert pose. Very nice perch with the orange needles, and qwuite the beautiful backgorund. I agree the bottom portion could go, and I would have loved more room for the tail at the edge.