This past Wednesday, Yol turned 40 and we celebrated in traditional style with good food, good wine, and good company! One of the presents that Yol received was a voucher for the 'Simply Owls Experience' at Gauntlet Birds Of Prey in Knutsford - a two hour owl handling and flying experience. Yol loves owls, so it was a natural choice for a birthday present, and it also gave me a spendid opportunity to try my hand at shooting new subjects in a new environment.
The first thing I'll say about Gauntlet is that it's an amazing experience. The staff there are so friendly and knowledgeable, their love for the birds is plain to see, and the birds seem to be so happy! Yol's 'Simply Owls Experience' was scheduled to start at 1pm, so we got there at 12pm, nice and early, and were treated to the spectacle of the noon flying display.
To see the birds flying in such close proximity is a truly breathtaking experience, with the flying area going over the heads of the spectators to give an all-encompassing view of these beautiful (and some not-so-beautiful) creatures!
Yol's 'Simply Owls Experience' started with an indoor lesson in basic handling of smaller owls. Yol was with two other people doing the 'Experience', and I was there along with another spectator snapping away as Yol and her companions were issued with handling gauntlets, learned how to tie line knots, and then met three of the inhabitants: Yoda, Julia and Humph!
After the introductions, it was time to start handling and flying the owls. Yol took to it straight away, handling Yoda and flying Humph. Yoda is a Little Owl, and chirruped his way through the encounter; Humph is a White Faced Scops Owl, and was emitting a sound not too dissimilar to a coffee percolator!
Photographing the owls inside was a real challenge. Indoors shoots of any kind mean relatively low light, which in turn means that high ISO numbers are the order of the day. My Nikon D40 only goes up to ISO1600, so the shutter speeds had to be kept relatively low; this in turn meant that getting sharp shots of flying indoors was very difficult! Once we went outdoors, the sunny weather meant that low ISO and higher shutter speeds made life a little easier:
However, even with the advantages of the brighter weather (which clouded over from time to time, but never for long), the big challenge was factoring in the speed at which these birds fly! To get a sharp shot requires not only a fast shutter speed but also a quick focus. A large depth of field would have made it easier but that would equate to a lower shutter speed, so finding the compromise point proved very tricky, even with the brighter conditions. No matter how quick your autofocus is, it won't be able to keep up with these speedy fliers either, so that makes things even trickier!
After the Experience, we were treated to the second flying display of the day, and had the wonderful sight of eagles, storks and kites taking to the skies. Shooting against the bright sky means that it's time to go down the 'light HDR' route when it comes to processing the shots, and this gives results such as this shot of a Kite:
The full set of photos from our trip to Gauntlet can be seen on Flickr here:
Gauntlet Birds Of Prey photo set
For more information about Gauntlet, this is their website:
Gauntlet Birds Of Prey Eagle And Vulture Park
In the last posting, I gave a little 'behind the scenes' look at a studio shoot I'd done with my great friend Lauren Freeman, where Lauren stepped out from behind her camera to shine in front of mine! I am still working on the shots, as we took around 2200 on the day and covered a variety of themes, but I can give you a sneak peek on how some of the shots are coming along:
Keep watching this space!
