Tips for Photographing Wild Barn Owls

Barn owls are one of the UK's most beautiful birds of prey, and provided you are sensible, are relatively easy to photograph. Not necessarily easy to photograph well, or in an original way, but behavioural shots are certainly harder for many other bird species. My top tips for photographing these graceful birds are listed below:

1. My first piece of advice is to find out more about barn owls and just watch local ones, whether you have your camera on you or are just out for a walk. Like a lot of wildlife, owls are creatures of habit, and the ones near me always head to the same fields to hunt, following the same route. If successful, they return to the nest and if not, they seem to have a set list of back-up hunting grounds. Spend as much time possible watching the owls and better photos will be the result. For example, with the photo below I saw the owl from about 100m away and knew it would fly along the ditch I was next to looking for prey. I crouched down and waited, and sure enough it came to me. A little too close maybe as my Canon 100-400mm lens was set to focus from 6.5m and it was closer than that!



2. Another tip is keeping out of the barn owl's way and not spooking them. They might not mind you being around, but chances are that if you're human shaped they'll view you as a threat. No photograph is worth disrupting an animals behaviour for, especially in these times of habitat loss and an increase in the dangers they face. Please also remember that they are a protected species like kinfishers and in order to photograph them near their nesting site you require a license from here. There are certain conditions for this, such as proving your understanding of nature and photographic abilities by providing shots of other bird species on or near the nest.

3. Timing is also important. Whilst you are unlikely to get good shots of barn owls at night without triggering technology and flashes, the best time I find is early evening to dusk. The best weather is a clear day with little wind, which should provide the best light for photography anyway. Owls struggle to hunt in the rain of snow, so a clear day after days of poor weather means they'll be hungry and in need of more food. Likewise, they need more food in the Spring and Summer months when feeding chicks. On a good night in July, the pair near me probably bring back a vole, rat or mouse every 15 minutes and start hunting at a fairly consistent time. Having said this, during the winter or in times when food is scarce barn owls will be forced to hunt for longer and at different times, so keep an eye out.

4. Barn owls have amazing sight and hearing. They can also see in much lower light than us, and pin point where their prey is (watch when they hover and you'll notice them concentrating on the ground). However, there are drawbacks to this that you can exploit as a photographer. According to this interesting site, barn owls have a field of vision of about 110 degrees, in comparison to ours which is around 180. This is fantastic for spotting prey. However, when combined with the fact that in order to see well at night they haven't got the ability to move their eyes around like we can, ( they must look whichever way they're facing) it means that they are more likely to be interested in looking for prey than you. Animals which have predators like hares or deer have a much larger field of vision to alert them of any movement, but an owl's are sort of like looking through a short telephoto lens. Great for spotting the tiniest detail, but they have a blinkering effect. The owl above only noticed me when I was about 5m away and moved round when panning. If you crouch down and stay still, then you can probably get away without using camouflage. Having said that, wearing drab clothing, using a hide or shooting from a vehicle will probably get you closer and produce better photos.

5. Lastly but not least, you need light, lenses and luck. Good quality light, whether used to backlight or sidelight will make your pictures. Telephoto lenses are fairly essential. A 70-300mm zoom on a crop digital SLR (Canon 50d, Nikon D90 etc) will get you started, and anything with IS will help with panning in low light. Obviously a 500mm or 600mm f/4 would be the best piece of kit, but they also cost big money. And finally, luck. You can get into the right position, with the perfect light and the best weather but you aren't guaranteed to get anything. However, as Ernest Hemingway said, "You make your own luck". Put in the time learning and practicing and your chances of being there when something magical happens and getting a great photo of it are massively increased.