Snowy Owls #2, Dec 2013

Another week has past scouting for snowy owls for my upcoming snowy owl photography workshops.

The weather system that moved in from Texas last weekend created some very poor conditions to be out scouting for the owls. With rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow and everything in between I did not get many chances to search for the owl, visibality was pretty much non-existence for 3 days.

It’s also unfortunate for the owls that have arrived to the winter feeding fields as the 2-3″ of rain will prevent many of them from feeding and will either move on or perish. My understanding is the field mice and voles will not surface as much or they can not surface through the thick ice build up and stay well hidden from the predators such as owls, hawks, harriers and shrikes that frequent the same fields.

In the past week I have seen the number of visible owls drop from 10-12 to an average of 4-6. Obviously some days they are just not as easy to locate as others depending on the snow falling, blowing snow, (which has been quite often this winter). That being said, i am having very good success with the 3-4 that I have been able to locate in the same fields as in the past years.

I have had a few comments on the colour cast or blueish tone to some of the images and am asked if that is a white balance issue? What I have found when shooting in a very cold temperature (-15c +5f) or lower is the light temperature does have a coolish blue tone, I find this is more noticeable on a sunny day. If your lucky and the sun is setting with that beautiful golden hue on the face of the owl, you are rewarded with glowing eyes and cold blue snow. Some of my favourite images of Snowy Owls and Great Grey Owls have been captured when these natural elements come together.

However, not that I wouldn’t take a snowy day with large light falling snow flakes either.

Enjoy some of my recent images of the Snowy Owls of Ontario.

Len