Today I achieved a personal best. Today I captured my best owl images ever. No big deal, right? It’s just an owl and there are thousands of spectacular owl images out there. My “best” pales by comparison to many. No medal will be awarded for this effort but that’s not the point.
The point is photography is a process and a journey. It is the love of that process and the way-points of that journey that matter. Bill Fortney, a photographer I recently discovered, eloquently articulated that idea in a recent blog post of his own, “Remember [photography] is a journey, not a destination. Instead of worrying about how good others are, think about what you can learn from them and how you can work to improve your own images. Take full advantage of the people, places and conditions you can enjoy. Soak in the joy of just holding a camera in your hand, and attempting capturing all the beauty God has made!”
Well said!
Mr. Fortney goes on to make other great points that are worthy of your consideration – you can read his entire post here.
But before you go, I’d like to share a couple shots from my journey. I feel fortunate to have captured these images since owls are rare in these parts and I’ve never seen one in such great light. It was quite exciting. Thanks for looking.
Great Horned Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 2
Great Horned Owl 3
great shots, Frank. Owls are indeed an exciting bird to see and photograph. i have only had the opportunity to see 2 in the wild. 1 in South Carolina and 1 in Bosque.
it is so amazing how silent they are when they fly.
where did you find this one?
Thanks Steve. I got these shots at my old stand-by, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in NW Missouri. Whenever my shutter finger gets twitchy, I go down there and almost always find something interesting. It is quite this time of year. Things really get going there in later in the fall when water fowl migrate south along the Missouri River valley. It will be interesting to see this year’s migration. Squaw Creek is primarily a large wetland area. But this year, because of the drought there is very little water.
I’ve probably been there over 50 times and this is only the second owl I’ve seen. Owls have always fascinated me. I was grateful to get off a few shots on this one.
It is a treat to see an owl in daylight. And these are wonderful shots. I especially like the last one – the motion and focus are outstanding.
Thanks Donna. These shots were taken about an hour before sunset and the light was perfect. They were shot at 1/640 and f/7.1. If I had it to do over again, I would have opened up the aperture a bit more to get a faster shutter speed which would have allowed me a few more “in flight” keepers.
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