About the Image(s)

Canon R5 ??“ Canon 100-500 @500mm ??“ ISO 800 ??“ f11 ??“ 1/20,000th second exposure using a strobe.

A friend of mine is a wildlife biologist who does research for the University of Arizona ??“ he lives out in the desert about half the time (the other half he spends with his wife on 3-year-old boy at their home about an hour north of Tucson.

When he’s in the desert and finds something interesting he text me and tell me to come down to his ‘ranch,’ which is really an old well, a few dilapidated shacks and spring fed pond. A mating pair of Western Screech Owl eggs had just hatched and he said they pair would be busy feeding the new chicks every night all night.

I set my camera on a tripod and set intervalometer for continuous 30 second exposures and set four flashes with a laser trigger and the camera focused on an area about a foot in front of the Owl’s nest and walked away and let the flashes and intervalometer do their thing ??“ we moved out of sight so as not to disturb the feeding process and let the batteries run out ??“ In all I got about 10 captures of the owls either going to or from the next (I wanted the owls with their prey (usually spiders or small lizards or rodents) moving toward the nest. I also inadvertently captured a couple of bats that tripped the flashes. This was one of my favorites.