This owl is blind in one eye.  I think it is this eye, but I don't remember for sure.  This owl was hit by a car and rescued and rehabilitated by a nature center.  

I made two versions of the same photograph. I did so because I was trying to hid a mistake. Look at the right edge of this photo. Do you see the white space on the wall behind the owl? That white space is especially unpleasant in the original photo, so I used software tools to create this antique plate effect.  This was the only treatment that adequately blended the white space with the shades of the rest of the photo.

I created this version first, but I had to crop the image tightly against the edge of the owl's head.  I cropped it to 1x1 format with the hope that a square image would be interesting and you wouldn't notice that it was cropped too tightly. But, in this color version, the white space was simply ugly.  I worked on it in Photoshop to fill in the space with blue to match the left side of the image, but then the edge of the details of the feathers on that side were obviously distorted. 


So, for both of these images, I cropped the image to focus attention on the owl's eye.  An owl's eye is a well-known image in popular culture.  And, the eye is the most prominent element to this image, so I used it to build this final image around the eye.


Both of these photos are examples of how I sometimes have to make artistic decisions because of an originally bad photograph.  But, with Adobe Lightroom and Google's Nik Collection software, I am able to create the image on screen that I have in my mind.  To me, that transformation is what I see as my role as a fine art photographer.


I just learned that the Barred Owl is the only common owl in eastern North America that has brown eyes. All others have yellow eyes. 


Which photo do you prefer?  Please comment below.  If you also send me your address, I'll send you a printed 5x7 of the one you like.

This owl gives me the opportunity to describe the difference between documentary photography and fine art photography--at least as I understand it.

I create nearly all of my images for the purpose of producing fine art photography, and with the intent to sell them.  Fine art photography is my opportunity to express my artistic impression and often to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.  This technique is contrasted with documentary photography, which is intended to present to the viewer an objective re-creation of the original event, or object.  Photojournalism and medical imaging are examples of documentary photography.

I intend to print and frame this image of this screech owl during molting.  There are several processing techniques I applied that make this image an example of fine art.  First was the composition.  I want the viewer to focus on the owl's eyes, so I followed the "rule-of-thirds" and placed his eye at the cross of the top right section of the image.  I also intentionally place the corner of the brick wall as a vertical line on the right side of the image. This element serves to provide context for where the owl is located as well as to stop your eye from going off the right side of the image.  On the left side, by contrast, the owl's other eye is visible, but less dominant. And the horizontal white lines of the brick wall in the background match the horizontal line formed by the owl's eyes and direct the viewer's eye toward the left side of the image.  I use these composition techniques to encourage the viewer's eye to naturally move around the image with interest.  By contrast, in a documentary photograph, the entire photo would be perceived nearly instantly, and without a desire for further exploration.

I selected relatively wide aperture to create a bokeh effect. There is a particularly shallow plane of focus in this image, maybe only 1 cm thick, which is focused on the owl's eyes and the brick wall to the right. Everything further back, such as the back wall, is intentionally out of focus.  I want the viewer to recognize that the wall in the back is made of brick, but to then not pay attention to it. The bokeh, or blurred-effect, achieves this goal.

I also manipulated the colors and the light to add artistic appeal.  I applied a subtle effect of making the center of the image brighter relative to the edges.  I placed the center of this effect at the base of the owl's beak, just between the eyes.  I did so to focus the viewer's attention on this location as a starting point for viewing the photograph.  I captured this image at precisely 3:00 PM on a downtown street in Annapolis, MD.  I mention this time because it is the absolute worst time of day to get good color in an image. However, it happened to be the time that I came across the owl.  From about 10 AM through 4 PM (in summer) the light from the sun is flat. It is a bright white.  This effect is bad for artistic photography because the diffraction of the color spectrum is what creates the beautiful colors we all enjoy. Do you remember learning about a prism in science class? During the first few hours of the morning, and again right before sunset, the sun's rays reach the surface of the earth at an angle, which causes the reds and blues to become more distinct, and therefore easier to capture by camera. So, to compensate, I increased the contrast between the light areas and the dark areas of the image.  I have computer software that does this for me.  And then I increased the saturation of the the colors to make the entire image appear brighter.  

The last adjustment I made was to sharpen the overall image.  I wanted this image to give the viewer an especially close-up view of this owl during the molting process.  Again, I used special computer software that analyzes each pixel of light in the image and eliminates any fuzziness at the edges of each individual feather.  I could have chosen to smooth the overall image, which would have blended the different areas of the picture to give an overall softer impression. If this owl had not been molting, I might have done so. But, I saw interest in the details of each individual feather.  This sharpening effect also enhances the texture of the brick wall on the right side.  This image is another example of my work that will appear more interesting in person than it does on your screen.  The copy that you are looking at here has a resolution of 72 dpi, which is optimized for computer screens. The copy that I will print has a resolution of 360 dpi, which is optimized for my EPSON 3880 printer.  In person, you would be able to see much additional detail that is lost on the screen, due to the inability of most computers to display such crisp edges.  Again, this effect is one of the elements that makes this fine art, as distinguished from documentary photography.  I want the viewer to pay attention to the detail of the color and the texture of the image. I can achieve that result from a printed photograph much better than online.

And, finally, I intended to create an emotional response.  For documentary photography, there is no intended emotional response.  One might result, such as from newspaper photographs of natural disasters, but that is not the photographers primary purpose.  You could search online for images using the term screech owl, or even screech owl molting.  Nearly all of the results are documentary photographs and instantly you will know exactly what it looks like.  But with this photograph, I want the viewer to spend time examining the image and to think about it.  Although molting is regular and natural process for birds, I hope invoke a sense of empathy for this scraggly, little creature.  At first look, this bird is not a pretty one. But, I hope that the extreme close-up, as well as the position of the bird's eyes, will give the viewer the ability to see more than simply pretty feathers, which is often the case for most artistic bird photography.  

I created this photograph with the purpose printing and framing it and offering it for sale. I made all of my artistic decisions by keeping my focus on the end goal of this photograph hanging on the wall in somebody's home or office.  I needed to create enough beauty on the surface to make the image appealing from a distance, but I also created it with enough attention to detail to provide additional interest upon close inspection.  I try to create images that give the viewer the feeling of somebody saying, "Hey, come look at this! No, really come close. There is a lot to see here.  You could never see this much in person." I also want the viewer to wonder about the story behind the owl in this picture.  Why is it against a brick wall and not a tree? Why are the feathers so scraggly? Is the owl sick" Is is sleeping?  I hope to create this level of engagement with artistic images. With a documentary photograph, my intent would be to show you the owl exactly as it appeared and without any artistic interpretation. You would look at it once and never need to look again.  But, I want people to buy my printed photographs and to enjoy the experience for many years.