The Joy of Photographing Owls

Episode 144: The Joy of Photographing Owls

Shownotes: ConservationVisuals.com/144

(Digitally transcribed, please forgive any typos)

Jaymi Heimbuch:
[00:00:00] Jaymi Heimbuch: Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of Impact, the Conservation Photography Podcast. Now, today for this episode, I wanna delve into the world. Hi. Of owl photography. I have been more than a little obsessed with owl photography as of late. , not necessarily because I have been out photographing them, though I want to change that very much soon, but for a few specific reasons, one of which will directly benefit you.

[00:00:27] Jaymi Heimbuch: I'm gonna tell you all about that in a moment, but, I've kind of been curious about owls and really intrigued by them for a long time. Back in the day when I was an editor and a writer with tree hugger.com, I used to write these fun kind of dives into a certain species or like a family of animals. In fact, I did this whole series called Nature Blows My Mind, where I would pick an animal or something really interesting and just kind of take a dive into that and I'm never going to forget.

[00:00:55] Jaymi Heimbuch: When I chose to do a writeup about cool facts about [00:01:00] owls, because you know, when you do these things, you get to spend your whole day basically researching and figuring out what it is that you wanna say, like the most interesting things about these animals. And so I took this deep dive into. Really interesting facts about owls, and I swear my whole perspective on them shifted when I learned about their massive eyes that are so big that they can't even rotate them in the eye socket, which is why they can rotate their neck so far.

[00:01:27] Jaymi Heimbuch: They have to turn their whole head in order to change like where they're looking. And so they've got this incredible ability to turn their head. They have, um, not all species, but many species have asymmetrical ears, which help them to better pinpoint the location of something that's making sound, which makes 'em more accurate when they're hunting.

[00:01:46] Jaymi Heimbuch: , many species have a disc shape to their face with feathers that essentially create this disc shape that helps to funnel sound into those ears. And as for the feathers themselves, they are [00:02:00] evolved in. Amazing ways to be able to have very, very quiet flight. I mean, I could go on and on and on, but I still have this very vivid visual memory of sitting at my laptop that day, reading all about owls, as much as I could gather up, and my mind was blown, like the, the title of that series was really accurate.

[00:02:21] Jaymi Heimbuch: Anyway. What is also so amazing about owls is that each species has its own unique charm and presents its own set of challenges when it comes to photographing them. They have an elusive nature. Many of them have nocturnal habits. They have these strikingly expressive features, and it all makes them an incredibly intriguing subject to capture.

[00:02:43] Jaymi Heimbuch: In photography, you know, in different cultures, owl symbolize. Wisdom or mystery or transition as predators. They play this really important role in ecosystems in which they live, and in fact, they have the ability to completely shift an [00:03:00] ecosystem balance . Even here in the Pacific Northwest, researchers are studying how the Bard owls that have arrived here in the Pacific Northwest after having, uh, kind of naturally migrated this way, they can easily outcompete the endangered northern spotted owl and may also be outcompeting the California Spotted Owl.

[00:03:20] Jaymi Heimbuch: And as they do that, A species that has a broader diet, they may actually be completely shifting the balance of the forest ecosystem. It's a pretty big deal, and as photographers, we have this opportunity to portray these incredible creatures in all these amazing aspects of their lives. So telling the story of these impressive abilities.

[00:03:44] Jaymi Heimbuch: For so many species, their kind of fragile perch on a continued existence. There's so much that we can document about these amazing owls, but let's be honest here, photographing owls is not an easy task. In fact, photographing [00:04:00] owls requires a huge amount of patience. It requires a really keen understanding of their behavior

[00:04:06] Jaymi Heimbuch: and, uh, yes, even maybe having the ability to adapt to their nocturnal schedules and photographing in the night. Now these birds are masters of camouflage. They often blend in completely, seamlessly with their surroundings. It is really amazing to spot an owl out. Next to a tree and to realize how perfectly they can blend in with the bark of that tree.

[00:04:30] Jaymi Heimbuch: Spotting them in the wild, in fact can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack because of that incredible camouflage ability. But oh my gosh, the joy when you finally spot one perched silently on a tree branch, I remember walking in the woods. It's right behind my house with my dog one day, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw this movement, this kind of swish, and the first thing that I thought was, oh, maybe it's a crow or something. And as I turned my head, I realized that that soaring [00:05:00] pattern was definitely not crow.

[00:05:01] Jaymi Heimbuch: Like it was very wrapped orlike and an owl had soared from one branch and landed on another, and just perched there. And we stood there watching each other. It was such an incredible experience. Of course, I did not have my camera, but hey, what are you gonna do? But I guess just enjoy that moment. Now I'm Pretty sure I'm not a hundred percent because I didn't have my binoculars, But I'm pretty sure that that was a great horned owl, which we have quite a few of in the area.

[00:05:27] Jaymi Heimbuch: We also have barred owls. I have heard northern pygmy owls, they're such a diversity, and in fact, let's talk about some different species of owls. There are around 260 species of owls worldwide, each with its own unique characteristics. The Barred owl, which I've talked about with these soulful brown eyes and this impressive kind of aggressiveness to it.

[00:05:52] Jaymi Heimbuch: There's the great gray owl, which is for so many photographers, a species that we just aspire to be [00:06:00] able to photograph. It is this majestic species. This elegant figure that when you see it against a winter landscape is just kind of awe-inspiring.

[00:06:10] Jaymi Heimbuch: There's the barn owl, which is all over the world. It's this very common familiar species, but you can't mistake it for anything else, right? It has that gorgeous heart-shaped face and that crazy eerie screech. Each species of owl offers a unique narrative. About its life, like a unique way that you can approach photographing it, telling its story, really documenting how it thrives in an ecosystem.

[00:06:37] Jaymi Heimbuch: . You can really get into very interesting and unique photo stories when you zoom in on specific species. And here's the thing with owls though, because they're tough to find, understanding their behavioral patterns is really crucial to being able to photograph them.

[00:06:54] Jaymi Heimbuch: Some owls are strictly nocturnal, while others can be spotted hunting during twilight hours or [00:07:00] even midday, their feeding and their breeding seasons vary. And really digging into these various details of specific owl species that you wanna focus on will significantly increase your chances of actually capturing compelling images. Knowing these details can also help you plan out your shots so that you can get great images without actually changing their natural behavior.

[00:07:24] Jaymi Heimbuch: And this is, Huge in owl photography, there is so much bad behavior out there. Photographers who use baiting to get images of owl's hunting, which can have really horrible consequences for the owl, all because those photographers don't have the patience to just let an owl go about its business or the patients to actually study an owl and then spend time out there watching it to be able to understand what it's doing, predict its behavior, and get shots that way, but ultimately it's incredibly worth it to have that patience.

[00:07:58] Jaymi Heimbuch: There is absolutely [00:08:00] more satisfaction in the images that you make when you let the owl be and just document its behavior. I remember being in Nome, Alaska with a buddy of mine and we were driving down a road and saw a short yeared owl hunting. It was working this field, and we realized that it was going back and forth over this field, which is a, a hunting behavior of short eared owls.

[00:08:20] Jaymi Heimbuch: They'll work a field back and forth hunting for voles and prey. So what we did was we drove way off to the other side of the field and we waited, and soon enough, The owl flew straight to us and we could photograph it that whole time. And when it passed us, we knew, hey, it's gonna circle back. So we drove off to the other end of the field and we waited and soon enough it flew right to us again.

[00:08:42] Jaymi Heimbuch: And we probably did that four or five times watching the owl hunt and getting those awesome shots that I was so excited to share and never disrupting. Its hunting in the process. And that is so important to think about, like if you disrupt an owl while it's hunting, you just deprived of a meal, and that [00:09:00] can literally mean life and death for an animal.

[00:09:03] Jaymi Heimbuch: So understanding. What an owl's behavior is and how to be able to photograph that without actually interrupting. It makes you a pretty amazing photographer.

[00:09:13] Jaymi Heimbuch: I'll tell you as a photo editor, some of the hardest stories to edit are about owls because of those very, very common bad practices. Like we have to really research how images were created so that we can choose only those images that were created ethically that actually had the owl and its life and livelihood in mind as that image was being crafted.

[00:09:37] Jaymi Heimbuch: Now if you wanna learn how to ethically create images of owls and be competitive in this field because of that ethical approach, because more and more editors are really focused on only sourcing ethically made photos, then I've got a great resource for you, and I'm gonna tell you all about it in just a moment.

[00:09:55] Jaymi Heimbuch: But first, let's talk a bit about. The technical aspects of creating [00:10:00] those compelling shots. Now, often you're seeing owls in low light conditions, and that calls for slower shutter speeds, higher ISO settings, wide apertures. You're often gonna find yourself pushing your gear to its limits, but I wanna encourage you, don't let that deter you from trying your hand to owl photography.

[00:10:19] Jaymi Heimbuch: In fact, with today's camera technology and the incr, Credible software that's available, you can absolutely push the limits of the gear that you have and still come away with some pretty great shots. So I don't want you to feel like you can't even try your hand to owl photography just because you don't have the best gear on the market.

[00:10:36] Jaymi Heimbuch: There is a ton of possibility. In fact, I remember walking in a park, this was back when I was very first getting started in wildlife photography, and I was so excited to walk around in a park and just see what I could see. And I came across this other photographer and I will never forget what she said.

[00:10:52] Jaymi Heimbuch: She, she stopped a chat because she noticed my camera gear. I had a telephoto lens with me, and she's chatting with me about the wildlife that's there, and [00:11:00] she told me that there's. Owls living there in the park, but she's like, we'll never get photos because owls only come out at night and you can't photograph at night.

[00:11:07] Jaymi Heimbuch: And I'll just be blunt. I thought that that was one of the dumbest things that ever came out of a photographer's mouth, first of all, because there's literally hundreds of thousands of photos of owls. How do you think that those photos were made?

[00:11:19] Jaymi Heimbuch: Like. Obviously you can photograph owls, but more importantly, what a limiting mindset to have. Like what a limiting way to think about your wildlife photography. Like, oh, there's species that I'll never be able to photograph because of when they come out. Rather, I'd like to think about, oh, there's a species that comes out in the evening, or at dusky times.

[00:11:39] Jaymi Heimbuch: . I wonder how I'll be able to photograph that species with the gear that I have. Fact is with practice, with persistence, with knowledge of OWL natural history, you can absolutely master the art of shooting these audience wowing owl portraits, even under challenging conditions, and you can do it ethically.

[00:11:58] Jaymi Heimbuch: Now, if you [00:12:00] are feeling very intrigued by owl photography as I am, then I have something that is really gonna help you out. On our website, conservation visuals.com, we have put together a comprehensive guide on Owl photography. The author is Nancy Crowell. She is an incredible professional conservation photographer with a ton of owl photography experience under her belt, and this guide is designed to equip you with the knowledge and the skills to embark on your own owl photography adventure.

[00:12:30] Jaymi Heimbuch: I think of every outing where owls are the target species as a grand adventure because they are such an exciting challenge and so. Deeply gratifying to be able to get clear shots of this guide is packed with everything that you need to know to get started from advice on how to find owls, to photograph techniques to use, to capture images, including camera settings, to try, cuz as I mentioned, you may be needing to push your cameras to the limits and so these camera settings can help you get the best [00:13:00] possible shots it offers.

[00:13:01] Jaymi Heimbuch: Tips on ethical wildlife photography practices. So if you're not a hundred percent sure around, well, what is ethical?

[00:13:08] Jaymi Heimbuch: This guide will walk you through what some of those do's and don'ts are, because respecting our subjects and their habitats is just as important as capturing a great shot. And this guide even has advice on how to share your images on social media and. Why being really thoughtful about how you share owl photography on social media is so important.

[00:13:28] Jaymi Heimbuch: So head over to conservation visuals.com/owls and check out the guide. I think that you will absolutely love it. It is one of the big reasons why I'm feeling all hyped up about Owl photography. Another reason I will say why I'm feeling extra stoked is because after I edited this article and got it up on the website,

[00:13:49] Jaymi Heimbuch: my partner, Nick and I went to Eugene, Oregon for kind of just a weekend getaway, and there is a Raptor center there, the Cascades Raptor Center. It's this [00:14:00] really cool wildlife rehab center and nature center, and I'd never been there before, but it focuses on Raptor species and they have, I think it's like 50 different species of Raptor there.

[00:14:11] Jaymi Heimbuch: And of course, they had so many different species of owl there, these ambassador animals that couldn't be re-released into the wild. Some of the owls were just, oh my gosh. There was a three month old eastern screech owl that was the cutest little fluffy guy. It was so adorable. They had this enormous, very elegant Eurasian eagle owl.

[00:14:34] Jaymi Heimbuch: Was something I've, I've never seen in person before, and to be able to see it so close was pretty amazing. Um, there's a snowy owl there and I had just gotten done helping to edit a photo story on snowys and ethical photography.

[00:14:49] Jaymi Heimbuch: Played massively in creating that. So to be able to see a snowy owl in person was so cool. It was amazing. I left the Raptor Center feeling really excited. We ended up going to [00:15:00] a used bookstore, which I. Didn't know about. It's this epic used bookstore. It's a couple of stories. It's huge. And I thought, hey, if there is something about owls in here, I really wanna find it.

[00:15:12] Jaymi Heimbuch: I was craving a natural history book specific to owls, and it turns out that just like the week prior,

[00:15:18] Jaymi Heimbuch: they got in a book called What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman. And what's really funny is I had been hunting all through the natural history section, the ecology section, the field guides, everything that they had on birds, and I couldn't find anything like what I wanted. And I figured that I would give up and go meet Nick, who was in some other section of this used bookstore.

[00:15:39] Jaymi Heimbuch: I think we'd already been there about an hour and I. As I walked out of that section, sitting on a bookcase was a single copy of what an owl knows. And I was like, oh my gosh, perfect. So I grabbed it and started to go through. I'm picking it up right now. It's on my desk. I'm um, about halfway through it right now.

[00:15:57] Jaymi Heimbuch: So I started to go through it when we got home and [00:16:00] realized there are some awesome conservation photographers whose photos are in here, including Melissa Gru, who is a name that, uh, is probably familiar to you if you know about conservation photography and owls. Her work has probably popped up. I also was thrilled to death to see that. One of the conservation organizations that I worked with when I first got started in conservation photography, they're now called rogue detection teams. They're in this book. They were interviewed for their owl work that they had done with dogs that sniff out scat and animal remains and other things to be able to collect data for science. And so they were in here and it's a fantastic book. In fact, I'm gonna go into the guide and link it in the guide as well. So if you wanna go to conservation visuals.com/owls, you'll get everything you need to know to get started photographing them.

[00:16:50] Jaymi Heimbuch: And you will find this book, what an Owl Knows, so you can pick it up and learn all about OWL Natural History. It is fascinating. I'm loving it. Okay,

[00:16:59] Jaymi Heimbuch: now I have [00:17:00] waxed on and on about owl photography. So I will wrap this up by saying, in owl photography, just as in life, patience is key. So keep your camera ready, study up on your species, and you'll get that perfect shot. And when you do, Savor that moment. It is a testament to your perseverance and your passion for nature photography, and it's gonna feel absolutely wonderful.

[00:17:25] Jaymi Heimbuch: I hope that this has been really helpful. Remember to head over to conservation visuals.com/owls to read all about how to photograph them, and I hope that you're feeling inspired and eager to explore this magical world of owl photography now. Meanwhile, I'll talk to you again next week.