Just getting back from a great weekend in search of snowy owls in British Columbia, Canada. I had heard of a place called Boundary Bay, which is just over the US border north of Seattle. Last year was a record year for the owls at Boundary Bay — snowy owls are infrequent visitors to lower Canada and certain northern parts of the lower forty eight. They may only show up every seven years. It all depends on the availability of food on the arctic tundra, where they live most of the year. As it turns out, this year is shaping up to be almost as good as last year. 30 or so owls have been spotted in the area and I was lucky enough to photograph quite a few of them. This lovely lady flew right at me and over my head last night just before I was about to call it a night. Much more on these owls later in the week.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400 lens (at 400) ISO 1600, f/4 at 400th of a second
31 Comments
Superb!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a record amount of snowys here in New England last winter, too. Looking at the reports daily, especially for Parker River National Park.
Thanks Rachel, my mother lives in Gloucester and I’ve been up to Parker River a few times. I missed out last year but heard that the owls were in abundance. I guess the lesson is I should visit my mother more often.
Magnificent! He looks like he has a mustache.
Yes, very Dr. Suess looking — like the Lorax.
If the Department of Defense could harness these fellas, they would make drones out of them. (See NOVE special tomorrow night.)
I love the “fearful symmetry” of that bird. Amazing photo, Sean.
Hey Sally,
Yes, the don’t seem to fear us much, probably because they’re not used to seeing humans up in the arctic.
I LOVE opening up your website and saying “WOW”
Thanks Karen. This one was definitely a wow moment in person as the owl swooped right over my head.
omg phenomenal! I have never seen an owl in flight from this angle, her wingspan is much longer than I would expect. And those big, yellow eyes – wow!
Thanks Angelina. I had noticed the previous two nights that just after the sun went down, they were flying in a certain direction — so I was waiting for them on the third night and they didn’t disappoint.
Awww man. SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!
Delivering a Howler to one of the Weasely twins, no doubt.
I suppose that’s a Harry Potter reference? I’ve never seen or read any of them.
This is a great photo!! So happy you were able to see them – just like the Birders!!!
very nice.
I opened the link and said, “WOW”.
That made my day.
I opened up the link and sucked my breath in!! No kidding. It took my breath away. Beautful!!
Thanks Renee, it certainly was a great experience to see these magnificent creatures at such close range.
She makes me want to duck!!! How do you get the eyes SOOOO focused. Mine are never THAT sharp. Advice?
Thanks Kim,
As for the focus, well, I guess I’d have to hear how you are shooting — camera settings, etc. The basics are making sure that your camera is on continuous or follow focus mode and just move or pan the camera with the bird keeping that active focus point on the face as best you can. Owls are easier than they seem to get sharp focus while in flight because they have such big faces. Plus snowy owls are large birds with a fairly smooth flight pattern. I got lucky with this one flying directly at me at eye level. Also, you need to make sure you have a fast enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur. This was about as low as I would go on a snowy at 1/400th of a second (unless I was going for something a little more impressionistic with a deliberate motion blur like this crane shot http://seancrane.com/2010/04/sandhill-crane-bosque-del-apache-new-mexico/). Ideally, I’d be shooting at around 1/1000th of a second but this owl shot was after the sun had set and the light was getting very low. Unlike a lot of other photographers that photograph birds, I handhold my camera rather than using a tripod and take full advantage of vibration reduction technology. I like to be more stealth with the camera and able to quickly react to a situation and I can’t do that with a tripod (plus I don’t use a 500 or 600mm lens in which case I would definitely have to use a tripod). Hope this helps.
I can think of no other words but to echo the words of others…
“WOW!”
awesome, awesome shot. If you ever take requests…I’d love to see a snow leopard some time. Im not really sure that would be a safe photo shoot however
Beautiful, Sean. What is the wingspan on this bad boy?!
)
Hey Tom, this one is a female and their wingspans can be from 4 and a half up to five and a half feet.
Great capture! The eyes are in perfect focus. I’ll be in polson, MT this weekend looking for Snowy’s.
Thanks Curt, and good luck this weekend in Montana. They are certainly majestic creatures.
Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more shots. We stopped at Boundary Bay two years ago so I am imagining the location with the owls.
Love it!
Thats simply fantastic, well done
WOW!