Owls from Nature Visions

Most years, we attend the Nature Visions conference in Manassas VA to listen to lectures and learn about nature photography.  I saw lectures about impressionistic photography and hands on flower photos.  I also attended a workshop to photograph injured owls.  Tom Till was the keynote speaker sharing photos of America's Southwest (beautiful).

Here are a few owl pictures for you to enjoy.

     Barn owl

     Barred owl

     Eastern screech owl-red, tiny

      Eastern screech owl-gray, injured eye

To see more, visit my Calm Reflections Photography Facebook Page.

Autumn in Virginia 2

I noticed some pictures from our Virginia trip were missing and found my missing SD card.  Here's some more lovely autumn pictures from Shenandoah.

     Fell cottage at Skyland

     Masanutten Lodge 1

     Masanutten Lodge 2

     Overlook sunset 1

      Overlook sunset 2

     Gray Eastern screech owl 1

     Gray Eastern screech owl 2

     Gray Eastern screech owl 3

Four Captive Owls

I had a chance to photograph some captive injured owls up close.  It was sort of difficult taking photos in midday light without over exposing the white feathers, but I tried my best.  They had four owls to share with the group of photographers.

The Bard Owl was the largest bird I photographed and very sleepy.  This is the best shot I could get.  In most of my photos, he/she had his eyes half closed.  I did get a chance to see it's additional protective eye lids.

 



I really liked the Barn Owl (without the barn!) What a face!  Barn owls are one of the most common type of owls and are found all over the world. 

 

 

 

 

 
This little owl is an Eastern Screech owl.  They are very small and fairly common in the eastern United States.  I've photographed several of them before including one in my September 6, 2013 and April 23, 2012 blogs if you want to see more.

 



The long eared owl has asymmetrical ear tufts.  The ears don't line up perfectly, which helps them locate their prey.  The left ear is higher than the right.

A good online source of information about owls is All About Birds.

Summer in Shenandoah

We took a very brief weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park and took a short hike to Black Rock summit so we could see all the rocks. We also attended a lecture on birds of prey & met a tiny eastern screech owl. When photographing animals I always focus on their eyes and try to blur out distracting backgrounds or simplify them.

More Winning Photos at SMCCC

We had a fairly difficult new photo judge last week for April’s St. Mary’s County Camera Club competition.  At the last minute, he tossed out one of my favorite dog photos, but kept my Eastern Screech Owl for Advanced Digital First prize and my photo of an Old Boat at St. Mary’s College of Maryland for third prize.  I liked the reflection of the autumn trees in the boat photo and the big eyes of the owl, the way its’ ears waved in the wind in front of the bokeh(BOH KAY or BOH KA) background (out of focus blur that sometimes looks like circles).  The 8 or 9 inch owl kept closing his eyes from the wind making it challenging to photograph.

Next month’s competition theme is St. Mary’s County.  Maybe I should have kept the photo for next month, but I have some others I can use.