A photographer wakes at 5 AM to shoot barred owls in Frick Park and shows how directional light transforms wildlife photos. Overcast conditions flatten the image, but sunlight sculpts the birds' faces and reveals texture and contrast that make them actually worth looking at.
It's 5 AM. I'm just waking up. I'm on the air mattress in my office. I'm sleeping on the air mattress because my wife does not want to be up at 5 AM, and here I am making this video. So why am I up at 5 AM?
So back in the spring, this friend of mine asked me if I would show him where the owls were that I was photographing at the time, and of course I That was Muppet and her family, the great horned owls, and things just happened. You know, life, etc., and we we never did make it out before the trees really leafed out, and it just became too hard to actually get out there and find the great horned owls. But now it's summertime, and I heard that there are. Barred Owls around Frick Park, so I suggested, you know, maybe we can check there and, and see what happens. So it turns out that this week there was an ornithologist in town who was interviewed in the park looking at the Barred Owls that were there. There's a family, they've got a bunch of fledglings, and it was really Unbelievable timing because going out today, I really have no idea if we're going to find them, but I was definitely going to go to a place where I'd seen one barred owl before several years ago and hope for the best. But, you know, we'll see. Maybe we'll actually get to see them. So I really had no idea how successful we were likely to be. And I just arrived, but coming down the hill, it— one of the barred owls flew right in front of me.
That's them. Oh God, okay, that's the babies. Okay.
Up this way somewhere. I love nature photography, and I assume since you're watching this video that you do as well. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to talk to you about light and lighting in photography, especially wildlife, but just in general. So if you notice this video that's playing right here, the lighting is really flat. There's no big contrast. The sun isn't striking our subject, so it's kind of like, uh, what you She would get on an overcast day where everything is just kind of even, which makes it really kind of boring, honestly. So I apologize that the first bit of video that I'm showing you here is— I'm describing it as boring, but I want you to keep that in mind when you see the other video that I'm going to show you after this and the photos where the owl that is in those is sitting in the sunshine. Well, there's more than one owl, but just pay attention to how the light looks at them. My friend has left. He had some stuff going on, so I saw him off and I've come back.
And let me show you where they're at.
This is what I'm talking about. Just look at the difference having the sun falling on your subject makes. Of course, it helps to have a beautiful and amazing subject like these barred owls, but really, with the right lighting, any subject will look amazing. Let me know in the comments what do you think.
Bardow. There's there's two of them that are up here, but one the light is the light is shining right on its face and it's moving all around. It's it's now looking at us.
And here you can see again we're back to the same situation where the lighting is just not as dramatic. And when the lighting is not hitting your subject and the background isn't sufficiently dark around your subject, what happens is the viewer's eyes start to jump around and we don't really know what we're supposed to focus on. You're allowed to wander off of there visually, as opposed to images and video like this where the subject is clearly very brightly lit and the background is very dark. Of course, that doesn't mean that flat lighting doesn't have a place in photography. It really does. But like everything else, that place is informed by what it is that you're thinking and trying to say with the photo. Bright areas draw our attention. In that way, they are a guide that helps the viewer to understand exactly what we want them to look at. I can't believe the luck that we have had. This has been such a fabulous morning. So like I said, when we got here, when I got here, there was one of the owls right by the side of the road here. It flew up into the tree. And so when my friend got here, we walked up here and tried to find it. Couldn't. Spent 45 minutes walking all around the park. Until this nice gentleman came by and said, oh, you're looking for the owls? They're over there. Meaning they're back where we started. So we checked a few different trails, found them, but found that the best vantage point was actually back where we started near the cars on the road. I'm back in my office and I'm starting to edit the photos and videos that I got of the family of Barred Owls out in Frick Park with my friend. I can't wait for you to see these. I don't know where I'm going to put this in the video, probably towards the end, so you've probably already seen some video, but from here on out I want to show you some photos. Check these out. I can't begin to express how lucky I feel getting to photograph such incredible things as, you know, these birds and all the other things that I get to photograph. It's just, it's really special. And I've been doing this for almost 30 years, and that feeling, it never changes. Uh, I'm glad, I'm glad it never changes. It's just so— there's just so much joy that fills my entire being. When that light is right, when I frame up my subject well, and then when I get home and put it on the computer and edit it and get to share it with folks like you, it just brings me so much joy. And if it's bringing you joy to see this stuff, then please like the video, share it if you wouldn't mind as well, so other people can see it. And if you enjoy this content, if you like photography, wildlife, owls, then be sure to subscribe. 2, if you are trying to learn photography, maybe you're a little frustrated with exposure settings like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Maybe you're sticking to auto because you're a little worried about trying to do things on your own. Check my description because I have a ebook that's only $25 that explains everything. It's super easy to understand, quick read. You can keep it on your phone to reference when you're out taking pictures, and that purchasing that really helps me to keep making great videos like this and the content that I share on my website. So if you like that, you know, check it out, give it a, give it a download. Like I said, it's only $25. I really appreciate you being here. I truly, truly do. Thank you so much for watching, especially watching all the way to the end like you have. And I hope you'll subscribe and stick around and I'll see more of you. But either way, thank you so much for being here and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
