Eagle Owl eye (abstract)

When I first saw the full-frame file of this image I was drawn to the silhouette of a man in the centre of the bird's eye. The cropping is designed to bring out this detail, while the image manipulation is intended to lend the shot the feel of a predator in its natural environment – hunting on a moonlit night.

Canon 1Ds MkII, Canon 100-400mm L IS USM lens, 1/1,000th sec, f/11, 400mm at ISO 500. Editing process: image duplicated twice in Photoshop CS3. Image 1 = correct exposure; image 2 = overexposed by 1 stop; image 3 = underexposed by 1 stop. All three images layered using Photomatix. Low-pass blue filter added. Selected areas with warming filter. Shadows and highlights accentuated. Total of five layers then flattened