Behind the Image: Barn owl in flight
It was approaching sunset while I was out along the riverbank and driving between the farmers’ fields. I wanted to make the most of the sunlight as the winter season was on its way out, so I was driving along the roads to see if I could spot anything feeding on the riverbank or on the fields. One of the species out on the fields was the lapwing, locally known as pee-wits which mimics the call that they make. They’re a stunning bird and their unmistakable broad wings make them easily noticeable from a fair distance away. I pulled off the road alongside the ditch and watched the lapwings on the field to see if they were likely to fly off. They seemed to be more preoccupied with searching for insects or worms in the recently tilled soil, so I walked slowly around my car to the boot where my camera bag and tripod were.
Once I flicked the camera on and began to walk slowly to a lone tree — which I was to use as cover so the lapwings wouldn’t get disturbed— something white flashed out of the corner of my eye and out of nowhere, it seemed, a barn owl glided along the ditch on the opposite side of the road, less than ten metres from where I was standing. In a split second, I raised my camera and tracked the owl as it turned sharply and flew in front of me and then up higher into the air. It became aware of my presence and it looked at me as it continued its flight path along my right-hand side, so I was able to focus on its face when it looked in my direction. I was continuously shooting making sure the whole of the owl was visible within the frame, but I wasn’t fully confident at the time that the settings were best suited for the low amount of light and the speed the barn owl was reaching. As the barn owl flew away from me and continued along the ditch, I had a quick glance at the back of my camera, and I felt so elated with what I captured!
I did end up re-editing a few of the images a couple of times. The sky did not quite reach its light yellow/orange hue that would come at golden hour, resulting in a mixture of colours that was hard to calibrate in editing. Since my last edit, however, I am happy with how the sequence of images turned out, and although there isn’t any depth or details in the sky (I tend to have something in the background to establish its environment), it was still a wonderful moment to experience and to have brief eye contact with the barn owl and it continued searching for small rodents along the fields and ditches. Moments like this always remind me of the well-known statement of ‘expect the unexpected’ when it comes to photographing wildlife!
