This Snowy Owl, photographed on January 10, 2013 seems to want to do a bit of tree hugging as he takes off.

Canon 5D Mark III with the 500L f4 lens handheld @ 1/1000, f13, ISO 400 and -1 exposure compensation. Cropped to decentre the bird for composition purposes. With moving birds, I always centre the bird in my viewfinder, otherwise my images have no chance to be in focus. I usually underexpose a bit when I have a white bird against a dark backgrouond to prevent blowing out of the whites.

Cheers,

Mike