I wasn’t planning a second trip to Randolph, VT to photograph the snowy owl, but a friend and great photographer wanted to go, so I joined him. The day was forecast to be sunny, but it was anything but. It snowed lightly most of the day.
My goal was to get some flight photos. I got lucky. The photo below is not cropped horizontally.
The previous time I visited the owl it was cold but sunny with blue skies. That day the owl barely moved during 3 very cold hours.
This day had mostly white skies with dull light, except for a few minutes late in the day. I found the owl around 1 PM on a lamppost on the north side of the VTC campus, and when I left it was there again. Fortunately she flew to the ground two times in between.
The contrast between the white sky and the golden light near sunset was dramatic.
At times the owl can look comical.
Here are some photos of the owl on the ground.
And some more of the owl flying.
While waiting for the owl to do something except sit on a lamppost, which it did 99% of the time, I made a series of photos to show the effect of shutter speed on snow. Perhaps they will be useful in a future class when I cover using shutter speed creatively. In any case, here they are.
Snow can certainly add to a photo of a northern owl. Here is a Great Gray from earlier this year when a sudden snow squall happened while the sun was out.
My friend’s wife had made a thermos of hot chocolate. That helped keep me warm. But my hands and feet were cold for a long time after I left the campus.