Photographing British Owls and Raptors
Back in August (where has the time gone!) I went on a 2 day photo trip in Hampshire, with the lovely Otterbourne Studio and Hides, organised by Carl Thomas. I had already done a trip with Carl, back at the beginning of the year to the Cairngorms where I got my first taste of wildlife photography, and have been looking forward to going on another trip with him.
This trip was based at the Otterbourne hides, who have a range of British Owls and birds of prey, most of which have been rescued and donated to the team. The birds are handled and cared for by the team and as such, do have leather jesses on their legs. While the team do their best to hide these as much as they can, they cannot be removed without photoshop. Now I say this, as I have chosen not to remove the jesses in my images. I recently watched a Thomas Heaton video, where he talked about authenticity in his own images and how he has chosen not to remove some power lines in the post-processing of some of his images. While I am no way near the fame of him, I do want my images to be authentic to what I saw on the day, so that if any of you would like to go along, you are not surprised to find that the jesses are there and be disappointed.
After our introductions, we set out to begin our shooting. There were 9 of us on the workshop excluding Carl, Pete and Kate, the team behind Otterbourne hides. We were led out to one of the grassy areas, which is nice and big, allowing us to spread out and not get in each other’s way. Though it was still a bit daunting, having never experienced photographing one subject in such a large group
First up we had a pair of Long-eared Owls, who were both stunning (I am probably going to say that a lot …). They were placed in separate parts of the field, allowing us to spread out and get the images we all wanted, without getting in the way. I felt that I was able to take my time, ensuring that my composition was how I wanted it and didn’t feel rushed, and for me, this was what I wanted to experience today, the ability to focus more on light and composition, rather than hoping the wildlife would turn up where I had set up.
Once the long-eared owls were settled, the team also brought out a Kestrel and an American Kestrel. The Common Kestrel found in the UK and Europe, was at on an old hand plough amongst the long grass, and by getting down low, I was able to capture some really nice images.
For the majority of the day, I used my 70-200 f2.8 GM ii lens, as we were able to get relatively close to the birds, and I wanted the shallower depth of field that this lens offered, over the f5.6 it would have been, if I was using the 2X teleconverter. This meant I was able to get some lovely blurry backgrounds in my images, with the subjects standing out amongst the beautiful setting.
The team then brought out a Peregrine Falcon for us to photograph, I have seen these around us in the past but have never been able to see one still or up close, so this was a real treat. He was then moved onto another area, where the team set up some feathers around him. It was nice to be able to work each of the sets, finding ways to naturally hide the jesses, as well as make for some more unique images, but not using the obvious shooting spots.
Once we were done out in the field, we stopped off at some reflection pools, where the peregrine and kestrel were perched (at separate pools) again this was another lovely set that the team have created, and I am happy with the images that I captured here.
We then moved onto the action shots! Otterbourne hides have recently joined forces with a falconry team, who have now housed their own birds on site and have started to help with the handling of all the birds. To start with they had a young Little Owl, who was just learning, and this was it’s first time out flying for anyone. Due to its age and size, it was a very short distance, but after some coaxing with food the first jump was made!
Next up was a beautiful western barn own called Charlie. Having never seen a wild one before, the flight path threw me a bit, as she swooped down, to glide close to the ground before rising up again to land. It took a few attempts at watching and learning the path she would take before I was able to get anything of use! Once I had some, I was happy with, I choose to move to the side, to try and get a side on gliding shot, which I managed to do in both directions!
The next owl to fly for us was an amazing and massive, Bengal Eagle Owl with a wingspan of over 1m, dwarfing the barn owl we had just seen. I managed to get to a spot, pretty much in line with where the bird would fly, to get a head on shot. We had another owl fly for us after that, but I can’t for the life of me remember what variety it was! Once the flights were over, I got a couple of portraits, before we broke for lunch.
After lunch, we were back at it, this time with some Tawny Owls. To start with, Pete placed them in a high branch and for this shot, I did use the X2 Teleconverter to capture my image.
We got to photograph the owls in some tree hollows, which were beautiful. The tawny owls are so well camouflaged in them, it’s no wonder it is so hard to spot them in the wild. A barn owl called Wiggy was also in one of the tree hollow, but was more focused on having a snooze than posing for us.
Then the star of the show (well, for me anyway) was a black barn owl called Ember. A black barn owl is incredibly rare and is caused when an unusually high amount of melanin is created, giving the bird a darker appearance.
Once I had my images of Ember, I moved back to the tawny owls, who had been moved to some new perches. One was in a conifer tree, which I think was my favourite setting for this beautiful bird, while the other was on a fence post. As we were able to move around so much, it was great to be able to see the difference in moving a few steps. This was really clear on the tawny owl on the post, when facing in the original direction, she was shaded by a tree but, she moved around and so did I and the image created looks completely different, with the diffused light now on her front. For me, this was one of the main takeaways that I got from this trip, to slow down and look at the light and what it is doing before just going head first into shooting. Though it will be harder to replicate in the real world, it has made me stop ad think more about the role the light plays in my images, after all, light is the difference between an OK image, and a great image.
I then moved back to the barn owl, who was still snoozing, but was further out of the tree hollow, I moved around a lot to try different compositions, and I am really happy with my images.
There was also a Little Owl in another tree hollow, looking adorable with its massive eyes.
We were then onto the final few setups, we had the barn own on the top of a garden fork, before it jumped onto the floor, where I quickly managed to get some of my favourite images of it.
The fork was then moved to a new location, literary about 10 meters away, but this gave a whole new backdrop for when the little owl was placed on top.
It was then onto our final set up for the day, out in the flying field was a lovely wooden footpath sign, which had been decorated with some foliage (I have no idea what type of plant it was) and two little owls were placed on top.
I am really happy with all my images that I captured over the course of the day, and have found myself trying to focus more on the larger image, like light and composition much more than I previously had. Pete and Kate being photographers, each of the sets we used were really well thought though to help aid in getting the best images possible.
I have to say a huge thank you to Carl for organising the trip, and you can see more of his awesome trips here (I am off to Mull in September 2025 and cannot wait!) as well as to Pete and Kate for showing us all the birds and aiding us throughout the day.
Day 2 of this trip is also at the Otterborune Hides where we will be photographing Kingfishers and some harvest mice, so keep your eyes out for that post out soon.