The temperature is now falling to around -12 each night, but our northern snow birds which come south to enjoy Duluth’s balmy winter climate don’t seem to mind too much. Thus, today I bring you both a snowy owl at sunrise” and a few “snow buntings”.
Sunrise Snowy Owl
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Snow Buntings
One purpose of a “365 day photography project” is to get oneself out of your “comfort zone” and try new things with your camera. Thus, I decided to greet the new year on the first day of 2015 with a challenging assignment: Photograph a snowy owl at night without the use of a flash. The initial difficult part of this effort is one must find an owl. Although the moon was very near full, and providing lots of light, in reality the night is still quite dark. Thankfully, during the over the past few weeks I have learned the favorite hunting perches of some snowy owls. Thus with a bit of luck and pre-work I actually found two snowy owls. One bird was kind enough to pose for having its portrait taken in the moonlight. An additional benefit to this photo-opp site was a flood light which was about 40 yards away from the owl, and provided light in addition to the moon.
Lord of the Night (owls)!
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Like any good boy scout I was prepared for failure in my snowy owl night photography quest. Thus, I had a “bird in reserve” which I had photographed just before sundown … this bluejay. After all, on day #343 I would not have wanted to break my year long string of bird photos should I had not been able to find an owl … a distinct possibility!
Bird in Reserve Blue Jay
Have you ever heard the term “golden hour” photography? Basically the term means the hour immediately after sunrise, and the hour before sunset. During this time period the light is soft, and colors are enhanced. In Minnesota during the winter, our golden hour is actually much longer than 60 minutes for the simple reason the sun does not get all that high in the sky.
Yesterday I made to birding excursions. All the photos were taken during the golden hour. The light and the resulting photographs were fantastic!
Goldeneyes in the Duluth Harbor
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Katie’s Snowy Owl! (she had been showing my snowy owl photos to the 4th grade class she teaches. Thus it was fun to taken her and Erik on a successful owling expedition.
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One More Snowy Owl
