Sounds like a broken record player … for those of you who can even remember what a record player was … it’s cold out this morning. Yup, near the shores of Lake Superior the mercury is pretty darn low, -29F. However, 30 miles inland my brother is reporting -40F at his home. Let’s hear it for the warming influence of Lake Superior, but I have zero plans for birding this morning.
Yesterday afternoon at 3 pm it was a balmy -5F with a moderate wind. Thus, it was perfect for going out birding. Realizing that temperature was still cold, what better decision could one make than to pursue a bird used to Arctic temperatures … a snowy owl?! Success was achieved although, but I could only convince myself to stay outside of the car for fifteen minutes at a time. When the Snowy Owl finally made its kill, I was happily getting warm in my car. I saw the event, but capturing it on my camera? No way!
Here are a few images of yesterday afternoon’s star. In the first image if you look on the bottom right of the photograph please notice an iced up air vent. Perhaps the owl is enjoying some slightly warmer air temperatures. The second image is 100% identical except I have used a “dehazing tool” to get rid of the steamy air. (expand and compare)
One more Snowy Owl Image
Finally, I even went birding two hours sundown last night. I am still working on figuring out the nesting location of my local owls. It was -13F during my evening hike.
Beautiful pics!! What is this dehazing tool you speak of? Thanks!
I use Photoshop Elements to process images. While not as powerful (or as expensive) as full blown Photoshop,if one only wants to edit lighting and some other more basic attributes, it works real well. For instance I used the “auto hazing removal” tool, and it worked quite well. I could have also used the manual mode. Other easy edits include such items as horizon straightening, auto lighting adjustments (normally do this manually), contrast,etc.