Great Grey Owlet
Hi again, everyone! I hope you're not too tired of owl pictures from the Launsteins yet...there might be a few more still to come.
This is one image from the climax of our fantastic couple of days photographing Great Greys in the Alberta foothills last summer. After photographing nearly a dozen different adults, we stumbled upon a few owlets branching along the edge of the forest. After photographing one of this owl's siblings for a bit, we set off in search of whoever was making some calls further into the woods. I never saw this guy until it was almost too late...I literally nearly walked right into it, looking up at the last second and getting the shock of a lifetime! I quietly moved my daughters and myself back a ways so we didn't stress this little guy out, and began photographing him as the very last rays of sunlight penetrated the forest.
This is a horizontal crop from the vertical original. I'll be posting a second image from a few moments later as the sun faded even further, and may process it full-frame to see which format is preferred.
After about a half hour with these owlets we left them to their newfound wing-borne adventures and quietly made our way back to the truck, totally stoked about the experience.
One of the things I really like about this image is despite this owlet's undeniable cuteness, you can already see the fierce face of a deadly aerial predator in his gaze. I hope he has hunted well this winter and decides to return to his childhood home about the same time we head out in search for his kind this year.
I'm looking forward to your comments and suggestions on this one...I'm completely biased, having become more than a little smitten with this beautiful and cooperative owl, who just so happened to choose a moss-covered branch at eye-level to perch on (and that in one of the only patches of sunlight remaining in the forest)!
PLEASE VIEW LARGER VERSION (I think it's worth the effort!)
Field Notes:
Nikon D7000
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4 IF-ED
ISO 500
1/200sec @ f/4
-0.7EV from Center-Weighted meter
Manual exposure mode
monopod with camera leaning against tree for additional support
Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7 with minor adjustments to highlights and overal tone, WB as shot on Auto
VERY minor adjustments using Nik Viveza 2
Selective toning in PhotoShop CS5
Cropped horizontal from vertical
Selective sharpening and masking
Comments
34 commentsAND the BG colors are amazing and the sharpness and detail too!
David
It sounds as if you have room to add to the top which will only make this excellent shot even more excellent.
I have absolutely no other nits. This is an exceptional shot of an exceptional subject.. Looking forward to see the follow-up.
Really like the comp/setting, great light and details
Max
Sweet image. Great subject and scene, looks real solid technically - and good job on the post-processing too. Overall quite the pleasure to look at!
Two very small nits from a compositional perspective. First the shot seems just a tiny bit tight on top to me. If it were mine I'd experiment with giving it just a little more space up there. Second...I did find that the hanging lichen (looks like it might be Methuselah's Beard?) in the lower right a bit bright and a bit of an "eye-grabber". Might be worth experimenting with toning it down just a tad? Just a thought!
Cheers...
Brad
Ken Archer
Ray
Tom and the others who suggested a little more room up top...totally agree, but no, I'm afraid this crop represents the top portion of the frame. For whatever reason, when I had this owl in front of me, my mind liked him very high in the vertical frame, in part to include a mossy branch below him that I have cropped out here. I'm sure I could have relatively easily added some canvas above the owlet, but I decided to post this without any digital manipulation beyond minor colour and contrast tweaking. I felt that even though in retrospect I would prefer a little more room, I was within acceptable tolerances on this one and it didn't actuallly require it to "work."
Brad: thank you as well...and yes I totally know what you mean about the brighter Methuselah's Beard (moss) in the background. In fact, I had already done some work on this including selective curves to very gently tweak this down a bit. I wondered if it was still too dominant, and perhaps given your comment it is. I'll work on it a bit more in the future...thanks for your suggestion for this improvement.
Thanks again, everyone! I'll get the subsequent image of this owlet processed and posted as soon as possible.
Remarkable Capture,
Congrats on the WP . . .
D&L
Thank you once again!
I just love the lighting in this one. The Owl is fantastic, and the moss on the branch tops it off. Great Image!
Guy Nelson