She (according to Google, females hunt during the day when nesting so we assumed a female) was in the tree outside our kitchen window when we got home from errands in the mid to late afternoon. She stayed between three and four hours we think (we didn’t see her leave). The window is opposite our second story and she was within 10 feet of it. I shot through the window (too much reflection), from our neighbors driveway (too much foliage) and from our balcony. Eventually I was comfortable that she didn’t see me as a threat and I used both a tripod and my sigma 50-500 super telephoto. She was better behaved than any portrait subject I’ve ever had except for a tendency to swivel her head during long exposures (necessary if I wanted low ISO for noise free images because she was largely in shadow and it was late afternoon running onto evening).
A fantastic opportunity. and completely unexpected
5280 Lens Mafia 
Awesome shot Evan. The shadows and reflections in the eyes really give a uniqueness to this image beyond just a wonderful owl capture.
Aside from drugging it, how the hell did you get this shot? Best avian image I’ve seen.
She (according to Google, females hunt during the day when nesting so we assumed a female) was in the tree outside our kitchen window when we got home from errands in the mid to late afternoon. She stayed between three and four hours we think (we didn’t see her leave). The window is opposite our second story and she was within 10 feet of it. I shot through the window (too much reflection), from our neighbors driveway (too much foliage) and from our balcony. Eventually I was comfortable that she didn’t see me as a threat and I used both a tripod and my sigma 50-500 super telephoto. She was better behaved than any portrait subject I’ve ever had except for a tendency to swivel her head during long exposures (necessary if I wanted low ISO for noise free images because she was largely in shadow and it was late afternoon running onto evening).
A fantastic opportunity. and completely unexpected
Really beautiful Evan – I was listening to them in the trees this morning. You have shared some beautiful shots recently. Thank you so much.