Great Grey in Forest

Gallery: AvianPosted August 1, 201485 views6 comments

Hi Everyone! This is the same Great Grey Owl that I posted a little while ago that was hunting on a pile of logs. We first saw him hunting the fields, then he flew into the forest and we thought he was gone. My dad suddenly spotted him again just a little bit into the forest and was flying from tree to tree looking for movement in the grass below.

I know this isn't the best picture, especially because you can't see all of the owl, but I liked the way he was tucked into the forest here, and I think the green leaves make it look kind of cool.

I only got a couple of pictures and then he was off again, and before long he was out on the log pile hunting there!

Thanks for looking!

Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4 IF-ED with TC-14EII
ISO 3200
1/400sec @ f/5.6
on noodle in truck window

Dad's Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7 with adjustments to colour temperature, levels and curves
Minor additional adjustments using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2 in PS5
Noise reduction via Nik Dfine 2.0
Significant crop from horizontal to vertical...cropped to app. 30% of original image

(Not bad IQ for a crop-sensor camera at ISO 3200 with just less than 30% of original file remaining, though, eh?)

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on August 2, 2014 at 12:12 PM

I like this, Josiah. You placed the owl perfectly in the frame and did a great job of getting that gap in the trees behind the owl so it would pop from the bg. The partially obscuring leaves don't bother me a bit. In an ideal world, I'd like the oof tree in the center to be gone. A few steps to the right might have done it, but it might have put something else in it's place. Getting the perfect bg in the woods is a tough job and involves a lot of luck. That said, I wish I'd had this opportunity and come away with this good a result.

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

Comment posted by Patrick O'Healy on August 2, 2014 at 5:38 PM

Josiah,
Very nice shot of a shy subject. I like the advice Dennis gave you. Keep up the good work.

Registered on March 13, 2011, 326 Posts, 1679 Comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on August 3, 2014 at 3:56 AM

Wonderful shot you have here Josiah ! The trees makes for different layers and a nice sense of depth in the image. whereas the owl of course is nicely positioned and since it's intently looking at something other than the camera, you were well hidden I guess... nice work ! Cheers, hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on August 4, 2014 at 8:21 PM

I like this shot Josiah....viewing this from behind the bushes as a viewer makes me wonder what is the owl up to? What is he staring at? In my opinion, anytime you can get the viewer's involvement in an image, you did your job as a photographer and made a good image. Nicely done!