Motif: GHO against the moon.

I think I have posted this before on another site, but I'll run it by again since it's the only silhouette I have.
I took this owl in a huge dead tulip in my yard a few years back. I was inside reading when heard him hooting and I immediately rushed out with my new D30 and 100-400 zoom.
It didn't take long to realize that I could not expose for a good silhouette--including the hazy clouds in the sky at the time--without losing all detail in the moon.
So I fired off several shots at the right exposure for the owl, judging by the results on the camera display. Then I moved out into the clear and bracketed just the moon. In PS I took the best of the owl shots, and replaced its blank white moon with my best exposure of the moon shot by itself. A lot of manipulation, but it shows exactly what I saw in my yard that night.
My exposure data from that night are gone. And so is the tree. It was a favorite with me, and with all the raptors in the area, but it blew down in a big windstorm on the first anniversary of 9/11, and I have to say, I still look up at where it used to be every time I go out my front door.

aj hand