As an undergraduate wildlife biology student at the University of Montana, I spent many hours examining snowy owl pellets, carefully teasing apart the remains to identify the teeth and skulls of the rodents they had eaten. This was part of an ongoing research project studying the snowy owl population in northern Alaska for Denver Holt's Owl Research Institute.

Years later, Mike Clough, director of the Southern Vermont Natural History Center, generously welcomed me to photograph their resident live birds, along with their collections of feathers and other natural history specimens.

I love how the fine details of the feathers come alive in this photographic image and on the aluminum metal print. The detail and dimensionality are so striking that the talon and surrounding delicate feathers almost appear to be reaching right out into real space, as though my own thumb could touch them.

There is also something wonderfully totem-like about this composition, with the talon at its center, evoking a sense of presence, strength, and connection to this magnificent bird.