A few Snowy Owls from this season in Ottawa - D7200

I had a pretty good Snowy Owl season this year in Ottawa. Now that they've all flown back up north till next winter I thought I would share a few images with the folks here. Together with Loons these are my favourite birds to observe and photograph and just spend time with. All images were shot with a Nikon AF-S 300/f4 +1.4x teleconverter on a tripod. Enjoy!

#1. I love it when Snowies fly by and look straight back at you. This is my first good one like this all season. A LUCKY SHOT but I'll take it!!!

#2. Snow was very late coming to Ottawa this season.

#3. I waited almost an hour before she finally took to flight, but it was worth it!

#4. "Fire and Ice" - It took 30 minutes to circle around her and get into the right position to get some of the sunset in the back ground.

#5. "A little to the left..." Cute little Snowy looking straight me before taking off.

#6. "The Boss"

#7. "Got my eye on you buddy..." I was able to get a few lying down shots before she took off.

#8. Processed with the High Key method which I really like on certain images.

#9. These birds are fast

#10. Casual Snowy

#11. Silent Ghost

#12. Another High Key processed image.

#13. Male Snowy Owl at sunset.

#14. Lift Off

#15. Zainy Sunset - I was trying all season to get a good Snowy Owl shot against a great sunset background. In the end I had to settle for this Snowy perched high atop a hydro pole. I had to really over-process this image to get the extreme noise out of her feathers and out of her eyes. These were the actual colours in the sky but I did crank up the saturation a couple of notches for dramatic effect! Oh well, I'm looking for effect here, not realism!

Thanks for viewing. I hope you enjoyed them even a fraction as much as I enjoyed being out there this winter and taking these images of these gorgeous and amazing Owls!

Cheers,

Rudy