After The Storm

We had a rather intense snowstorm on Saturday and I figured that my

new buddy the short Eared owl would be out hunting cause he'd be

hungry. I did fine him in a tree alonmg the edge of the marsh...but

he was still hunkered down from the weather.

Nice one!

 

Apart from that the sharpness and detail are astounding!

Wow - that's gorgeous. Great exposure, sharp, and nice subject. How much of a crop is this? Nice to see some avian images coming in on the site with the D2X.

 

Personally, I would crop it a bit, though the large, surrounding setting is working very well.

Really good capture. Staring into the watcher's eyes. Beautifully framed on the snowed branches and good sense of depth.

so beautiful.greetings.

Superb in every sense. Very nice exposure, composition and sharpness.

 

Second Christopher by the way - I'm afraid you've got the wrong name and not enough "friends" to get this way up there. Shame.

p.s. Still shaking my head that somebody gave this a 4/4. Unbelievable.

Very nice shot. I love it. I think id crop a little off the top though. Still better than any nature shot I've ever taken. 7/6

I keep trying to rate this one (positively), but PN keeps blocking. What gives?

This is a stunning shot with amazing colors, detail, contrast and DOF! Outstanding! J

Really fantastic shot! The natural snowy setting sets this apart!

wow. excellent capture in difficult natural surrounding. excellent contrast. bravo!

Biliana

Jim, this is great. I'm originally from Maine, but don't get up there in the winter anymore. I might crop some from the top, but I can understand that the tree branch offers some balance. Auto-focus, yes? It would be difficult to get it any better. A true nature shot that deserves recognition.

Great "nature" image Jim. Sooo sharp. Was this handheld with VR? I can imagine how happy you were that you did go out to find him.

Mark Lucas - as for the 4/4, I'd put money on our old friend Thomas Lewis - he's up to over 8,000 4's now with nary a comment.

Interesting, too, that he rated another shot of this owl a 7/7.

I think it needs tighter cropping to bring more attention to the owl... as it appears now the suroundings are a bit overwhelming. Have a crop for you to consider. Regards!

Well..

 

I'm a bit astounded by all the responses even though I was pleased as punch with the shot!

Why anyone would give this a 4/4 amazes me..I can't figure it out. It's worth at least a 5!

 

I agree it could have been cropped but I kinda like it uncropped as well. personal taste I guess.

 

This was shot with auto focus and the VR was on as this was shot handheld. Every shot (Dozens of them) were dead nuts on and I'm pleased that when I uncovered this creature that I had the mental fortitude to have even set the EV correctly before he flew away.

 

I think I'll change my name to Sergio Fentoni or something like that!

 

Thanks Again!

 

Jim (Sergio) Fenton (Fentonio)

There is no crop ivolved here What you're lookint at is the entire frame.

 

Jim (Sergio)

Might agree that 4/4 is low, ispecially when seing what many at the top page photos get nowadays. However, IMO the reason that someone might give this average rating could be the comp... midpacement, quite static, with the branch behind, that some would consider not to be enough out of focus and being relative dominant, and by that been seen as a distraction. Personally, what i like best is the feeling the tonality gives...but cropping tighter (could be several crops that work)would improve this quite significant.

Jim: Is this yours too? http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00BWP8&photo_id=3202349&photo_sel_index=0

 

Is that the Sergio joke?

She is handsome :)

wow. my god this is amazing. one of the best technical nature shots i have seen on this site. And what is up with someone giving it a 4/4...why do people consisitently do that on this site? jealousy? anyway, what do you think of the nikon d2x? do you love it? is it worth the money?

anyway, perfect!!!!

A wonderful image. The owl is stunningly captured; the pine needles echoing the patterns on her lower feathers. I too would be in favor of trimming some all around.

Jim, I'm floored that you could get this close with a 400mm - and further floored that the 400mm VR let you do this handheld. Bravo, maestro! Print that out, send it to Birder's World magazine. That's a cover shot at the D2x's megapixel size.

 

Interesting bokeh with the 400mm VR...

The deatils are amazing. The eyes bright and the feather pattern the brown looks like its drops of water cascading down. Outstanding capture.