A rare sighting

I could not believe my luck heading south on highway 77 and spotted a Snowy Owl which appeared to be taking a traffic census.

Turned around and from the window took a few shots from every which way. I was buzzing these are just special birds which this year have been driven way south in search of food.

Canon 1D3 Canon 800mm ISO400 f/9. 1/250sec hand held from vehicle window. Blood pressure way up breathing heavy I need to stop getting excited.

Critique, Comments or Advice most welcomed.
Thanks for looking.

Jammy sod could do with a bit of a crop for me but again you jammy so & so.

Phil.

Phil

I know and I couldn't agree more. I have about 400 shots to play with. I prefer large in frame as I like to see as much detail as possible. The problem being it's not to every ones taste big in frame. So where is the happy medium?

This species is really suffering this year through the large numbers produce last year four or five fledged and I'm told this is the reason they have moved so far south.

This image is a female with the black markings. I have shots of another two one being a male.

Barry NSS JSS

You ecertainly are lucky finding one of these Barry!
Well spotted and photographed. Have you been able to take some shots from another angle where the horizon is not going through it's body?

look forward to seeying more of these and all the best.

greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Hi Jeroen

Yes I have a few others but I was just a bit restricted when you can't leave the vehicle for fear of flushing the bird or getting to close. I was just so pleased with what I saw and managed to record.

Here is another on a power pole.

There certainly seems to be a huge irruption of these into the USA and southern Canada this year. I think I would prefer a little more space to the right, but that is a very minor nit.

David

I like the comp of first shot Barry. Sharp bird and great BG colours. Did you try it with the horizon straight?

Bob

certainly an impressive sight Barry and the bird is nice and sharp in the top image. Both images look underexposed to me, especially the second.

Matt

Bob & Matt

When I shoot from the vehicle I use a section of pipe lagging over the window glass to lean on. To be honest Bob I concentrated on the snowy and did not consider the horizon. I was preoccupied getting the shot before she left. I've lost so many by not being quick enough.

Matt in fact all my shots were under exposed my thought process being although temp was -10 we have bright blue sky and very harsh light my subject was black and white I was trying not to over expose and lose definition and it was a fair distance away.

Please feel free to correct me it's the only way I learn. I have several other shots much closer with better exposure I think which I can post later if you're interested.

My PP is not the best I tend to do more harm than good most times. So what you see is often what I managed in the camera apart from resize to post and a slight crop to position. I fiddle with sharpening and noise reduction.

I also tend to post images to invoke comments and get questions answered hence the second. I really appreciate the help.

Thank you.

Great shots Barry! The first shot looks OK to me as is but ten to agree about the second being too dark and it would certainly take another stop or so on the computer. PP is something I do struggle with and can find it very frustrating.

Nick.

Well I was in Montreal last year around Christmas and not one owl was there. This year of course they are everywhere. :| Would love to have seen one, let alone get that shot.