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Thread: Snowy Owls: Ethics

  1. #1
    rajivsarathy
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    Default Snowy Owls: Ethics

    Some of the snowy owls I've seen photographs of here look pretty emaciated. I'm no ornithologist, but I understand that a healthy snowy should look a little bulbous. See my photo here for a healthy example:






    http://www.flickr.com/photos/rps_ip/6844286923/

    Snowies need about 30-50 yards between you and them to feel reasonably comfortable. They've come a long way to winter here and need all the calories they can store before they fly back north. They sleep during the day to conserve calories. When we approach during the day and they open their eyes, we've gotten too close. Their eyes are open because they are scared of what we're going to do to them. If they fly off their perch during daylight hours because we've gotten too close, then they've wasted calories they should be saving up. Various groups have posted ethics for photographers. If we're genuinely interested in the welfare of these creatures, we should follow those ethical guidelines.

    I know that none of us would sacrifice the animal's welfare to get a great photo, but I saw many photographers "flushing" snowies regularly so that they could get shots in flight. Not only does doing so prevent others from seeing these beautiful birds, it causes the birds unneeded stress and loss of calories at a time they need it most. Moreover, when we get too close (within about 50 yards), they're spending much of their time looking at us (to see if we're a threat) rather than looking for prey.

    Let's be careful and considerate!
    Last edited by rajivsarathy; 02-08-2012 at 10:36 PM.

  2. #2
    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    Nice photo! wish the head was turned towards you good details and exposure.

    When I was there most photographers behaved responsibly, it was a great time. I agree it is not a good idea to flush the owls, however I feel like you need to study a bit more before claiming certain things.

    First snowy owls do not "sleep" during the day, unlike other owls snowys are are diurnal, meaning they hunt at day and night with most activity during daylight. Also the presence and persistence of owls in this particular area in large numbers for such a long time means there must be abundance of food, when they have flied 2000 miles to this location, of course they can fly another 2 miles if food was scarce or if they were bothered by proximity of human subjects. Snowy owls are also quite aggressive raptors, if feel threatened they will attack even larger raptors/animals .
    Based on what I saw the owls did not feel threatened or uncomfortable at all.

    Of course we all need to behave according to common sense and respect for other photographers and the birds.


    http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_an.../snowy_owl.php

    http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?gen...ies=scandiacus
    Last edited by arash_hazeghi; 02-08-2012 at 10:39 PM.
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  3. #3
    rajivsarathy
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    Hi Arash - thanks for the feedback. I'm actually quite impressed by all the great shots you got.

    Like I said, I'm no ornithologist. Just repeating what some folks told me. The snowies only come down here (Seattle area) once or twice a decade in "irruption" years. Apparently, no one really understands why irruptions occur. Previously, people thought it was because of a lack of food up north. Now, they think that it's because of an abundance of food (and concomitant survival rates of owls) up north. Biologists say that this bird just hasn't been studied enough. My experience watching them here in the Northwest is consistent with what others told me: they seem to be active and hunt during the early morning and late evening; and sleep with their eyes mostly closed during much of the day. However my experience watching them is extremely limited, and I have not observed them at night at all. I agree that they don't seem bothered by the presence of humans who are 50 yards or more away. However, I'm unsure if they have sufficient places they can migrate to if they become too agitated. They seem to prefer coastal areas with wide expanses of fields nearby. Probably reminds them of the Arctic tundra and that's where most of their prey is. There aren't a lot of undeveloped places left like that at least around here.

    Here's another shot, but this one was cropped (the first one above was not).



    http://www.flickr.com/photos/rps_ip/6844596201/

  4. #4
    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    Hi Rajiv,

    I love the 2nd shot! it is great, what I would do is to crop from the right and add room to the left. beautiful eye contact and soft light, well done

    I haven't seen any solid data about irruption either and like many other things people say things, but sometimes it may not be accurate. One of the mods here (John) is an ornithologist maybe he can shed more light on this subject.
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    Hi Rajiv,

    Great topic for discussion and nice pictures.
    However, the General Photography forum here is probably the more appropriate forum for such a discussion.

    Including EXIF data when posting images is usually encouraged here to help others critique.
    (also I believe that forum participants may only post one photo every 48 hrs according to the posting instructions here.)

    Gorgeous light, nice bg, well exposed and sharp details. I would have preferred more eye contact and for the owl to be a bit smaller in the frame.
    So, how close were you when you took that first full frame picture? ;)

    What I had heard on NPR was that an irruption of lemmings in the north led to a productive snowy owl breeding season.
    Come winter time, there wasn't enough food for the increased owl population causing them to move south - apparently as south as OK (if only we could get a few in Texas :)
    Last edited by Sidharth Kodikal; 02-08-2012 at 11:56 PM.

  6. #6
    rajivsarathy
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    Arash, the reason I gave more space on the right was because the bird is facing to the right. That seemed more natural to me than space to the left. I'll try adding space to the left to see how it looks. Thanks for the suggestion.

    Hi Sidharth - I've been away from the forums for a while and forgot about the rules. Thanks for the reminder. I liked the first photo more than the second because it seems sharper to my eyes -- probably because of the crop. And to answer your question about distance in the first photo, my EXIF says the focus was at about 20 meters. I was behind another photographer who was probably 3 or 4 meters in front of me. When he moved a little closer still, he flushed the owl and got a good lecture from some birders with scopes who were farther away. Some of the info I posted above I learned from those ticked off birders! After that lecture, I noticed more photographers who were doing the same and figured they just didn't know better. I've probably flushed other birds many times accidentally, but that was my first snowy outing.

  7. #7
    RaymondParsons
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    I recently visited both locations in the Washington/Canada areas where the Snowy Owls are most prevalent and was able to photograph them, never stressing them by approaching too closely and never causing any too fly. I saw a couple instances of this by other photographers and it's unfortunate, but most were pretty respectful. I made it a point to look at my focus distance meter and I was never inside of 30 meters for any of my shots (and I consider 30 meters to be close.)

    The shots above are nice, but the second shot feels cropped too much on the left side of the image. If you have more room in the original image, it would be best to crop this so that the owl is about one-third into the frame from the left, giving it adequate room on each side (but don't center it either.) For the first shot, perhaps a polarizer would have produced a deeper, darker background.

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