As much as I like the Barred Owl photo with the branches and leaves partially obscuring the owl, there is definitely something to be said for crisp clean close-ups. I was amazed with how cooperative this owl was, and though the six minutes went by really fast, I also felt that it lasted forever at the same time.

The lighting was a bit odd as it was getting on towards sunset, and the camera picked up the color temperature in an odd way. When I got home, I wanted to process the photos to look like how I remembered it - a bit warm due to the orange-ish setting sun. However, the camera had picked up a cooler 4300K color temp that just looked a bit too cool for my tastes. I tried several different settings, and personally I liked the 5200K the best, but I intentionally processed some extras to share here to show the difference.

Mouse-over the thumbnails to compare how the different color temperatures affect the photo...

4300K	4700K	5200K	5500K

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/6.3. ISO 1600. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

While I was processing the photos, Anya came in and said she thought this photo would also look nice processed as a black & white. When I fired up Silver Efex Pro to see what it would look like in B&W, I found that I was just as happy with multiple versions of the photo that way too. I processed a couple in a "high key" (brighter with more whites) style and a couple in a "high structure" (darker with more contrast and sharper lines) style.

Same thing applies, mouseover the thumbnails to see the different versions...

High Key 2 Preset	Fine Art Preset	Fully Dynamic (Harsh) Preset	High Structure Preset

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/6.3. ISO 1600. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Now comes the fun part (as if looking at a bunch of cool photos of an awesome bird wasn't fun enough)! Pick the versions you like best and vote for them below. I've opened up the voting so that you can vote for as many versions as you like, but ideally, I'd suggest picking one color and one B&W... but honestly, if you can't narrow your choice down to just one of each, feel free to vote for as many as you like!

So this encounter with this owl was just the beginning to a very productive photography weekend, so be sure to check back frequently as I'll hopefully be posting daily for a bit to get through all this rush of new material I have (and hopefully I'll also be out collecting more as well)!

- Bill