Mouse Nightmares...

Gallery: AvianPosted July 10, 2014390 views6 comments

The Stuff of Mouse Nightmares!

Put yourself in the position of a mouse - could anything be more terrifying than seeing THIS "flying head" - complete with its dagger-like talons - coming at you with one purpose in mind only? Yikes!

I captured this Great Gray Owl image during my Owls of Manitoba photo tour way back in March 2014 (yep, just a LITTLE behind in my image processing!). While this is definitely NOT the sharpest bird-in-flight (BIF) shot I've ever taken, I think (hope) it conveys the action, dynamism, and pure drama of the moment. So I guess I'm hoping that the lack of technical perfection on this shot is over-shadowed by a certain electricity! Was the owl successful on this attack? Actually...no...but I'm certain it supplied its intended target with lots of material for a nightmare or two!

Subject: Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) going for a mouse
Location: Interlake Region, Manitoba, Canada
Camera: Nikon D800e
Lens: Nikkor AF-S 80-400mm VR @ 400mm. Hand-held from window of car. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/400s @ f6.3; ISO 100. No compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Pretty minor - this is about 85% of full frame

Note that this image was nothing more than a complete mess before I experimented with Photoshop's relatively new "Shake Reduction" filter on it. More info about this (along with a bunch of other info), can be found right here on my website:

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/.

Thanks for looking - and looking forward to feedback on this shot...

Cheers...

Brad

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on July 10, 2014 at 2:56 PM

Expert processing, Brad. The resulting image is well worth the effort. The sense of deadly immanence is outstanding, IMO. I like what the shake reduction did for you.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 10, 2014 at 6:49 PM

Shake reduction in post, huh? Well, if I ever go to cc I'll have to give it a try. This came out extremely well, Brad. The lack of sharpness ended up actually lending it a very painterly look in the larger version. I like the composition and the shallow dof works very well here.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie VanTassel on July 10, 2014 at 10:28 PM

Don't you just hate it when those Bear guys come over here and kick us in the pants!!???

Registered on October 18, 2006, 644 Posts, 4801 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 11, 2014 at 12:06 AM

I think it works also Brad...the amount of anxiety and anticipation this image creates is really what makes it so impactful. Nicely seen and presented.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Josiah Launstein on February 10, 2015 at 4:15 AM

Wow! This picture is so amazing! I have nothing like this one so far, but I really want to get something like this someday. The owl has lots of detail in the face. It is so cool how the owl is taking off(?) and the talons look really cool.

Registered on January 26, 2013, 52 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Martin Dunn on February 10, 2015 at 4:19 AM

a gripping image Brad
everything seems to draw in towards those piercing eyes and I actually think that having a large part of the image OOF helps the overall impact.
I've never heard ot the 'shake reduction' filter you refer to but I'll certainly check it out.

Registered on February 20, 2013, 198 Posts, 1011 Comments