New Jersey Snowy

Gallery: AvianPosted February 5, 2015163 views10 comments

Hi,

This winter I photographed a beautiful female snowy owl on the New Jersey shore. I was with her for an hour or so and tried lots of different angles. I have a lot of closer horizontals but I wanted to try some verticals. I was trying to keep the foreground clean but that was tough with the dune grasses.

I am wondering what you think of this vertical composition.

I cropped about 10% off of the top.

Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 400mm f.5.6L (handheld laying on the upslope of the beach and not on the dune grasses)

ISO 250 | f/6.3 | 1/1600s

I cloned out a small dune grass that was in front of the owl's chest.

Thank you for looking, Ashleigh

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on February 5, 2015 at 10:13 PM

Hi Ashleigh,

This is most likely a first year bird with the heavily barred plumage. I think that your crop should be tighter with less sky on top and a little bit more off of the right side. The presence of the dune grasses does not bother me. I hope that you post some of your horizontal views of the snowy as well

..............................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by Alberto Patiño on February 5, 2015 at 10:47 PM

Ashleigh, I agree with John, I would crop off much of the sky. I actually like the dune grasses, they frame the owl very nicely.

Registered on December 2, 2014, 278 Posts, 1736 Comments

Comment posted by peter davidson on February 6, 2015 at 6:00 AM

The sky adds space but is it really needed? I don't feel it is. Otherwise a lovely shot.

Registered on January 29, 2015, 11 Posts, 39 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on February 6, 2015 at 9:30 AM

Ashleigh: I like the way you created a bold composition. This image tells me something about the environment. For certain applications this would be excellent, like a magazine cover that needed room at the top for text. I'm sure you took other images and other compositions. Way to go with being bold on a composition. Not every image has to fit a specific mold.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on February 6, 2015 at 11:57 AM

Classic east coast Snowy Owl photo. Only thing I wish for is the eyes to be more open - but this also shows the bird wasn't spooked or alarmed.

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on February 6, 2015 at 4:44 PM

Ashleigh I really like the way that your Owl looks totally relaxed ,love to see birds like this. Have no problems with the composition which shows the bird in it's habitat, very nice image that you must be proud of, I certainly would if it was mine.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on February 6, 2015 at 7:03 PM

Very nice capture of this owl Ashleigh, and good for you in experimenting with this composition. I like the grasses framing the bird and that you're looking slightly up at it. I do think taking a little from the top would enhance this image a bit, but I think it's a very strong image as posted!

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by Sandra M. Apel on February 6, 2015 at 10:22 PM

I agree with Chuck's and Keith's comments, I like the composition as is...... the angle of view and open blue sky makes a dramatic statement that I really like.

Registered on October 15, 2013, 20 Posts, 171 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on February 9, 2015 at 1:49 AM

What a beautiful setting Ashleigh

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on February 9, 2015 at 8:26 AM

Nice peaceful image. I like the vertical composition and the blue sky, excellent.

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments