Getting quality photos of a bird in thick fog is tricky but under the right conditions it can be done.
Each of the following photos was taken during a camping trip to Montana’s Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in mid-September of 2010.
This is the entrance to the refuge with the marshes on the east side of Lower Red Rock Lake visible in the middle background. Most of the lake proper is out of frame to the left. Back then on our trips to the refuge we always camped on the shore of the lake and that’s where I parked my camping trailer on this trip.
That time of year nighttime temperatures are typically moderately to very cold (the refuge is very close to the continental divide and after all, this is Montana) so the relatively warm lake interfacing with the cold air often fills the lower parts of the huge valley with thick lake fog by dawn.
This is what it looked like at our campsite on one of the mornings of that trip as the sun was rising over the lake and we were leaving to look for birds. This fog actually isn’t all that thick. On some mornings there’s no hint of the sun at all through the dense lake fog.
1/1000, f/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
On another morning of that trip the lake fog was so thick I could barely see the dirt road as we were leaving at dawn so I had to just creep along. A few minutes later, as I was about to drive over a cattle guard with a fence corner just a few feet from the road, we spotted the ghostly apparition of this female Short-eared Owl perched on one of the fence posts. By the time we spotted her through the fog she was so close I had to remove my teleconverter and shoot vertically to keep all of her in frame. Even then I was a little too close to give her as much room in the frame as I like.
Without the fog there isn’t a chance in hell that she would have allowed me so close but the fog gave her such a sense of security that she wasn’t nervous one little bit.
Fog can seem almost like a living, breathing entity as its thickness waxes and wanes. When I took this shot the fog was so dense its effects are quite visible, even at this very close range.
1/1250, f/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
But just a few seconds earlier it wasn’t quite as thick so this shot shows more detail than the previous one. Another evidence of the somewhat better light is my slightly increased shutter speed using the same camera settings.
I don’t often get photos of birds in thick fog that I like very much but I like this one a lot.
A tight crop on her face and upper body of the same photo shows that I have plenty of detail, even though some of the effects of the fog are still visible.
I’ll never forget this lovely and trusting owl. To this day I’ve never been closer to a wild adult Short-eared Owl and even eleven years later the feeling of intimacy with such a beautiful, wild and trusting creature remains seared in my mind.
Ron
Note: Normally I would never, ever attempt to approach a wild raptor this close. But she was so close to the dirt road I was traveling on I had no practical choice.
Otherworldly!
And, if I didn’t know you, I might have assumed this was a bird in a portrait studio with a backdrop.
Then I’m glad you know me, Arwen!
What a delight. I can understand why you would have warm memories of this encounter.
Thank you, Kathryn.
Strange geometric patterns in the feathers around her eyes. An eerie reminder of the scintillation or fortification figures I experience during my visual migraines.
Frances, I have a close friend who gets visual migraines often. Too often. She had one this morning. She describes an affect similar to what you describe.
I actually like the pose and softness of the first frame. Have you ever noticed the patterning on their feathers around their head behind the facial circle always looks like your photo is out of focus?
April, many owls are known for looking soft in photos because their fine plumage often shows less detail than one might expect. Some other birds, waxwings for example, exhibit some of the same trait.
I should have you up to see if you can hear the waxwings weathering in the mew when I have them again. Jon could actually hear them when standing by the mew. I had five til a few weeks ago, one late juvenile and 4 adults that had had coracoid breaks, difficult injuries to heal to recover full flight. Two adults and the juvenile were releasable. The last two still could not get good lift. I would have kept trying with the last two to see if more flight time in the larger cage and time would improve their flight, however they are very messy birds and with colder weather I can not hose out the mews safely and cleanly. They returned to the center for evaluation.
April, I’ve been able to hear waxwings a couple of times when they were very close but most often I just can’t. I hear absolutely nothing. It’s frustrating since Mia hears them easily and I actually have very good hearing for most sounds. In the classroom my students were often amazed that I could hear and understand what they were saying when they didn’t want me to. I found out a lot of interesting stuff that way… 🙂
I hope your last two waxwings can be released eventually.
I hear the waxwings in a green ash and ornamental crab from time to time – a different sound for sure. 🙂
Ron, these are classic images – they have an ethereal quality about them due to the fog.
Well done.
Thanks very much, Gary.
What wonderful photos of a stunningly beautiful subject — in fact, she’s so perfectly “coiffed” it’s as if she’s wearing a body suit made to look like owl feathers! Glad the fog — not always one’s friend — offered its assistance to you in composing these images.
Yup, she was dressed in her finest duds when I found her. Thanks, Kris.
Feathered perfection. Perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity and you captured it perfectly. And to have gotten an eye catch in that fog is impressive in itself, but one can see the reflection of the sun just above the ground.
I believe it probably was “once in a lifetime”, Lyle. It was a very special few minutes. Thank you.
She’s quite the beauty. The fog in the first shot gives her an ethereal quality that I like very much. Thank you for including the close crop that shows off her gorgeous facial disc.
And I know you would never intentionally get that close to any critter in the wild. Your ethical stance around nature and photography is one of the things for which I most admire you.
Thanks, Marty. I appreciate your confidence in my ethics. This is the beginning of Snowy Owl season and those owls suffer so much at the hands of unethical photographers who approach too close and use other unethical and even illegal practices I wanted to mention something about owl ethics in my post, even at the risk of sounding a little full of myself.
As I think I learned from EC – wowsah! This bird is full of texture and pattern. Thank you Ron
I’m glad you liked them, Frances. Yes, EC is a wonderful source of colorful expressions. If we weren’t online for all to see I suspect she could really impress us… 🙂
Gorgeous! It does look like a painting. Looking closely, such a crisp edge around her head & upper body, it almost looks like a cut-out, but then there are the feather edges on her lower back. Fascinating!
Thank you, Barbara.
In one of the places we lived the fog was often so thick that you could only see enough to drive by following the lane markings on the roads. Scary – but also incredibly beautiful. It brings a ‘thick’ silence with it too.
We were never lucky enough to see an owl in it – and it would certainly have been seared on my memory too.
Thank you for this magical series.
Wow, EC. Are you up early or still up? Either way I hope it’s not because of stress from your volunteer work…
Outstanding photos Ron. I have never seen a Short-eared Owl so don’t know how close they would normally let one come, but these are remarkably close. Maybe the fog contributed somehow to her allowing you to come that close. I think Porcupine is right about the Audubon look in these photos.
Worst fog I have ever seen was at Newport Beach right where you take the ferry over to Balboa Island. I had a very early morning appointment with a customer whose office was right there and I had a hard time finding it even though I had been there a few times previously.
“Maybe the fog contributed somehow to her allowing you to come that close”
There’s no question about it, Everett.
Just stunning! I also got the feeling I was looking at a painting only it’s alive. There is something special about these photos. I was already looking forward to see them when I read “short-eared owl” and fog!
Interesting, Mary. I suspect some folks wouldn’t be particularly interested in these photos BECAUSE of the thick fog. I really don’t think they realize what they’re missing.
Beautiful! With the fog, more detail would be unnatural, not a characteristic Ron Dudley would allow in his images.
Thanks, Dave. And good point.
Spectacular, Ron. Simply spectacular! We only get Shorties in the winter and I always look forward to their return. One of my Christmas Bird Counts is on New Years Day, and the Shortie is usually my last bird of a very long birding day, as they start to hunt at dusk. Great way to start a new year!
I wish we had more of them in winter especially, Diane. On some years we have good numbers of them in spring and early summer but that’s not the case in winter.
The fog makes the photos look like a very high quality painting. Similar to the original Audubons,,,except alive. The fog is a living thing and you were able to photograph one of its faces. Lovely.
Thanks very much, Porcupine.
Beautiful! Surprising to me that the fog could actually contribute to the shots… 🙂 We rarely get fog here except for a little over the creek – it certainly is a “living, breathing thing”. Fog was one thing I didn’t care for living in San Diego – just “dreary” 😉
“Fog was one thing I didn’t care for living in San Diego”
Judy, as I told someone else on FB who lives in San Diego County, some of the thickest fog I’ve ever been in was on the road between Escondido and Poway at night back in the 50’s when I was a little kid. We drove that road often. I remember my dad, who was driving, having to open his door and look down so he could see the stripes on the road and know where he was. Dangerous!
Haven’t done that with fog but sure have/had some power poles and lines referenced for some snow storms/blizzards I’ve driven through!
Driving through sudden and fierce snow squalls at night is a driver’s nightmare. After all the times I’ve done it between the farm and Cut Bank it’s a wonder I’m still alive.
Lots of us were lucky that way. I remember Joe & his brother driving to Helena on the rumble strip most of the way – of course, your road didn’t have any such thing to give you a clue!
The fog in CA solved the “mystery” (to me) of 50 car pile ups……. 😉
What exquisite portraiture–the last, tight-cropped image gave me the physical
urge to reach up to the screen and caress her feathers . I’m so happy for you to have had such an intimate experience with a wild creature.
“the physical urge to reach up to the screen and caress her feathers”
Thanks, Kris. I love the wavy-soft appearance of the feathers on her neck and upper breast.
Unbelievably beautiful shots. I’m a sucker for owls and this may be my new favorite photo! Love it.
Karen, it’s easy to be “a sucker for owls” isn’t it.
Almost jaw-dropping beautiful!
Thanks very much, Terri.
Gorgeous shots! Incredible! What a great experience too. Fog enhances that sense of intimacy i find, esp since sound is muted too and in some instances can create an atmosphere of mystery. I love fog shots of all kinds.
Granny Pat, I should have mentioned that “muted sound” in my text. It really does add to the experience.
These photos are so very beautiful, Ron. The fog seems to set the colors more that bright light would have done. Her eyes and eye discs truly pop. Any time a wild bird allows us into its inner circle we should feel blessed. Just lovely. I will be revisiting these special photos.
“I will be revisiting these special photos.”
You might (or might not) be surprised by how often I do the same thing, Melanie. I really do have a special feeling for this lovely lady and I have a lot of photos of her to revisit.
So beautiful! Thank you.
Thanks, Mary.