Photo by Robert Bowhay

Secretive Hunter of the Boreal Forest

I have been trying to get a close photograph of a Northern Pygmy Owl in Alberta, for several years. The challenges are threefold: they are scarce in Alberta, they live in remote boreal forests and they normally perch high at the top of a fir tree. I was lucky to come across this owl being harassed by Canada Jays while I hiking in the foothills during a gentle snowfall. The Canada Jays alerted me to its presence and had driven it down lower in the forest. The snow added another dimension of interest to the image.

Editing notesThe original image was taken in daylight and the color palette was yellows and browns. I wanted to give the image more of a moon lit feel. The image was first cropped by about 50% and NoNoiseAI was applied to the entire image. Several global filters were used : Warm Polarizer photo filter for contrast, blue photo filter to change color palette, Blue Cross Filter to affect highlights and shadows, Big Softy Vignette to highlight owl, sun flare from top right corner to cut through vignette and replicate directional lighting from original image and clarity tone enhancer to add some more detail. Locally , detail enhancer was applied to the entire owl and brushes were used for dodging and burning.

Canon EOS R5m2
ƒ/10
700mm
ISO 4000
1/400 sec

Secretive Hunter of the Boreal Forest

Your Trust is Our Foundation

New ON1 Photo RAW 2027