Female Great Horned Owl

Not much going on this evening. Just mom sitting on her eggs. She looked very relaxed and tranquil as if she is near the end of her long wait. The male was not around, at least I couldn't see him.

Female Great Horned sitting on her eggs.

This was taken in RAW at 300mm, 1/200 sec., f/6.3, ISO 800. The light was very good at a little after 5 p.m. and about 20 minutes before sunset. There were clouds in the west which tended to diffuse the light—I used a little flash fill via the Better Beamer, about 3 stops below ambient. I use the SB-600 flash in manual and adjust the strobe until the image on the monitor looks about right. Final adjustments made in Photoshop.  Click on the image for the large version.