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Gary from Hampshire shows off his majestic owl images
Gary Davis wanted to make owls the star of his latest wildlife portrait series. Instead of winging it, he chose to carefully control the light…
Mission: Produce a series of owl shots that show the majesty of these nocturnal birds of prey Photographer: Gary Davis Location: Hampshire, UK
Kit used: Nikon D850, Nikon AF-S 500mm f/5.6e PF ED VR, Benro tripod and gimbal head
My interest in photography began when I was 14 – I was developing my own blackand-white pictures in the bathroom. My mum was never happy about the smell! Following further education in radio and television, I then had a career in video and events, but I went back to photography 10 years ago – specializing in wildlife. Wildlife photography is my passion and I aim to
bring it to wider audience and help expose the plight of animals, small and large.
I don’t think my pictures are completely conventional, as I try to show the beauty of each animal in a different way. I’ve always used Nikon, and moving from one Nikon product to another with the continuity of the menus saves me relearning every time. Currently I use a combination of a Nikon D850 and D500 and only use Nikon glass. That combination gives me everything I need to get the shots I want. Take a trip to owl city This owl series of pictures was a challenge, as I wanted to show each bird at its best in a natural environment. The shoot took place in March, and although it was a very overcast and wet day, this meant it was perfect to create an atmosphere. I didn’t want lots of clutter in the background, as the idea was to feature the natural beauty of the owls. For example, the great grey owls [2] have a lot of fine feather detail, which can be hard to see in busy shots.
To get closer, I tried out the new Nikon AF-S 500mm f/5.6e PF ED VR lens. So far I’m very impressed, and it’s definitely going in the kit bag. For all of the shots I used Manual mode, starting with an aperture of f/7.1 and taking test pictures until the background went black. The ISO was no higher than ISO500, as the objective was to keep the background as dark as possible and also avoid noise.
In terms of lighting, I used off-camera flash, with two Speedlights set at low power. The shutter speed was either 1/200 sec or 1/250 sec, as High Speed Sync was not used, and the camera was mounted on a tripod. After that, it was just a case of adjusting the settings until I got a dark background with a controlled amount of light on the bird. Even on an overcast day the light was changing, so I constantly monitored the aperture and ISO to achieve the end result that I was looking for.
The problem with wildlife photography is that the majority of what you shoot does not actually want to be photographed. But like a portrait photographer working with a model, the bird was the star and has to be worked with for great images.