Great Horned Owl in Snow

Posted by Jim Zipp on Sun Jan 30, 2005 8:59 am

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Been away the better part of this month and about all I've shot are Great Gray, Boreal and Hawks owls. (Not complaining!

) There are so many fine images of them being posted I thought I'd post one of the only other birds I've shot....this horned owl. This is one of three that were hunting the wood edge and using these fince posts to perch on during a fairly heavy wind blown snow. Cloned out a wire on the fence post. Thanks for looking.

20D, 300 f2.8, ISO 400 handheld from car window.

Jim Zipp
http://www.jimzippphotography.com

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by dhkaiser on Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:02 am

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Jim,

Is that snow _on_ his face? From hunting? Wonderful shot. Oh I look to the day that I might get a shot like this. Thank you for sharing!

Dan

Dan Kaiser

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by whf4 on Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:54 am

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Nice isolation of the owl (I could only dream for this photo op!) but I think the squint detracts..... poor guy looks cold and wet.

4 down, 2 to go.

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by Sandy Mossberg on Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:02 am

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His eyes look like they're frozen half open. A nice one, Jim.

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by Bob Ettinger on Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:10 am

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Jim,

Cool literally and figuratively

Bob Ettinger

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by ajhand on Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:12 am

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Jim:

You really nailed this guy. My stuff was all pathetically soft. This really captures the plight of that poor bird, out hunting in a blizzard with the blowing snow literally caking his face. A rare opportunity and you capitalized on it.

aj

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by Dan Wolin on Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:00 am

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He looks cold. Very nice shot Jim. The snow adds a nice touch.

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by Vince Thomas on Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:55 am

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What a great shot... love the snow caked on it's "eyelashes"! You could have a ball just thinking up titles for this image Jim. The one that comes to mind for me is "Next year I think I'll winter in SoCal."

Vince Thomas
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by Harold Stiver on Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:12 pm

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Terrific, Jim. Its so rare to see GHOW out in the open rather than looking up into a tree at them.

The snow in the air and on the subject is fabulous but I like the color very much as well. Excellent!

Harold Stiver
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by Gearoid on Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:16 pm

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Beautiful shot Jim, poor guy does look a bit miserable in that weather.

All the best, Gearoid

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by Christopher Dodds on Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:25 pm

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An amazing capture, Jim. Great job getting him in the open and I really love the BG. The snow makes this one special. Congrats.

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by neil higginson on Sun Jan 30, 2005 1:24 pm

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SUPER IMAGE

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by Kristi Graham on Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:18 pm

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Stunning Jim! I feel a chill whenever I look at this image! I've never shot any of the owls you mentioned above, but it seems from reading all of the posts that one can get relatively close when photographing these majestic birds.

Kristi Beauchamp Graham
"Life is a gift of nature, but beautiful living is a gift of wisdom." -Aristotle

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by Cindy Marple on Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:12 pm

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He does look pretty miserable and cold- makes me shiver! I like how all the browns in the feathers stand out. Beauty.

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by Kim Steininger on Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:33 pm

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This is beautiful Jim!!! Besides the great looking bird, I love the BG and the snow!

Kim Steininger

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by Chris Kayler on Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:24 pm

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Great shot Jim, love the colors in the BG. His looks like he has pink eye and eye buggers

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by ebkw on Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:33 pm

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Yes, that looks cold, Jim. Nice colour in the background and in the bird. Well done.

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by Mike Wilson on Sun Jan 30, 2005 8:58 pm

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That miserable expression makes me feel the cold. Brrrrrrr.

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by KK Hui on Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:42 am

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He just looks frozen especially with his one eye half opened ...
A wonderful shot, Jim!

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by Scott Linstead on Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:15 pm

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I must have gone to your web site dozens of times over the last year or so and I'm always drawn to this image. It's gotta be one of my favourite owl images of all time. Do you think that your post-processing tendencies are affected by years of shooting slide film? I was surprised to find that this was not a slide image as the color palette looks a lot like your "Northern Exposure" shots, not like the post-processing output typical of 20D users.

Scott

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