Jody,
This image is so wonderful, impressive, and as Don points out remarkable!
Frankly this picture is almost something one would create for a kids TV show in a cartoon to show the involvement of the bird in us! Many great wildlife pictures are perfectly exposed and well composed. Here, however, there's the extra dimension of appearing as if the owl was actually communicating with us and we are not merely observing a disinterested fly past.
Add to the the esthetic qualities and delicacy of the bird in the frame at an angle balanced and almost anchored by the fixation of the brids stare, full face, towards us.
It helps, of course, that the shape of the face, being round with big dominant, fixated, yellow eyes, forms a structure analagous to a more "human roundish" shape and very different from the "sharply angular" appearance of a raptor head.
What allowed you to get so close, jody?
asher
