The Owl and His Dinner
I admit it. I’m in love with this picture. It was a complete accident — I was not paying attention to the background, nor really to the way the light falls off around the owl’s body. I was simply trying to get a good focus on his (her?) eye through the cage while he (she?) was still hopping around, as this great horned owl is usually found (on the occasions I visit, anyway) up in one of the nesting boxes in the tree, and is not usually visible.
Well, not only was this owl visible, he was hopping around like mad. Something had him riled up. I don’t think he was getting stressed about people being around (this particular trip to the Quogue Wildlife was a little more crowded than when I usually go, it being Tuesday and the Nature Center being open), but I can’t know for sure.
The Owl and His Dinner
17 March 2009
Quogue Wildlife Refuge, Quogue, NY
The lighting aspects are really good. The other thing I noticed after looking at it a while is that there is an “optical illusion” quality to the photograph.
Depending on how your eyes focus on the photo, the mouse can appear in the “foreground” as if laying in front of the owl while in another perspective the mouse appears in the “background”. That is quite interesting.
Alan G
March 23, 2009 at 7:27 am
Hmm, I see what you mean. My guess is that this has something to do with the fact that I was shooting through two chain link fences — and the way the light played through that.
Al F.
March 23, 2009 at 9:40 pm