Winter conditions have hit the Quebec City region in full force the last couple of weeks, heralding the start of a new, and hopefully plentiful Snowy Owl season.

Here is an example of how to rescue a badly composed shot.

This bird was close, and by the time I released the shutter, the head was way left leading out of the frame.

A judicious crop formatted to 8 x 16 saved the day by eliminating the dead space to the right of the bird. In the original, the tips of the wings were clipped away, so it didn't bother me clip more of the wings to obtain this more intimate flight portrait.


I didn't totally balance for whites either - I was happy to let the feathers blend with the background colour. This also prevented the blowing away details in the highlighted areas.

Canon 7D with the 500L lens, handheld @ 1/2500 (shutter priority), f13, ISO 400. Background despeckled after sharpening.


Cheers,
Mike