Family Tree

Gallery: AvianPosted December 6, 2015236 views12 comments

This is a pair of young snowy owls I photographed in Boundary Bay, B.C. in 2012. This particular year was an irruption year and many juvenile snowys were moving south due to a lack of food in their more normal habitats. They also get pushed out of their normals ranges by adult snowys who "take dibs" on any lemmings that might be available. Boundary Bay proved to be very good habitat for these animals - lots of hunting area and the owls arrived in amazing numbers.
I struggled a little with the lighting of this image as it was a very gray day. I increased saturation so that hopefully it would have a little more pop to it. I also toned down the highlights on the owls.
~Camera and Settings~
Nikon D7000
Nikkor 300mm f/2.8
ISO 640, f/4.0, 1/500 sec.

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by Cay-Uwe Kulzer on December 6, 2015 at 11:31 AM

Katie,

very nice the image, the digital processing you made and the story. Well done devil

Registered on January 27, 2004, 494 Posts, 4021 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on December 6, 2015 at 1:05 PM

Know it well Katie and this exact spot, I quite like the balance and the warm brown as a backdrop, sadly a lot has changed there since. Personally I would drop the blue, evident in the whites and the old tree trunk. Depnding on your ethics I might remove the small blades of old grass creeping in on the RHS at the foot.

TFS
Steve

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on December 6, 2015 at 4:28 PM

I like this as is, but with the blue cast tamed down. cool

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on December 6, 2015 at 4:53 PM

Nice job on this one, Katie. Dof is excellent for the grouping of the two birds and the large perch with everything in good focus. I like the eyes of both birds being fairly wide open which I had difficulties with when shooting during that irruption (down at Ocean Shores). You do seem to have a bit of that winter blue sky tint in the image and you might try warming it up a bit to see if you prefer it that way.

devil

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

Comment posted by Daniel & Loana on December 7, 2015 at 5:00 AM

I like the colours and the composition a lot, Katie.
I think that your postprocessing works very well.

Congrats
D&L

Registered on October 7, 2008, 166 Posts, 3044 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on December 7, 2015 at 6:42 AM

What a great perch for this pair to pose so nicely on for you Katie!

Excellent work creating a very pleasing compostion from this wonderful opportunity.

A Beauty laugh

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Ronald Murphy on December 7, 2015 at 8:30 AM

Great perch. I too would warm this up a little.

Registered on March 13, 2012, 279 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on December 7, 2015 at 9:20 AM

Katie, the slightly overcast, dull day as I said earlier reflects the conditions & location, warming the image up will move it away from capture, just address the Blue an easy fix and will retain the look & feel.

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Katie Jones on December 7, 2015 at 12:57 PM

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I will warm this up a bit and re-post it here...

Registered on November 17, 2015, 17 Posts, 91 Comments

Comment posted by Katie Jones on December 7, 2015 at 1:02 PM

Re-worked image:

Registered on November 17, 2015, 17 Posts, 91 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on December 8, 2015 at 9:46 AM

Katie,
I think the perch is superb!
I also prefer the original post!

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on December 11, 2015 at 6:59 PM

Beautiful image Katie, love the composition here. devil

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments