Another pair of wild owl workshops!

Sunday and Monday were very long days... up at 5:30 am, and back home at 7:30 -8 PM... 2 groups of wild owl photographers! I hook up with folks along the major highways and we race up to Brighton, and tour the area for Barred owls through the daylight hours.

Monday was my fourth trip, and it sure has proven to be interesting. Each time I go, it becomes a learning experience. the birds find different hunting locations, the weather is different, the light changes, we get fog one day, and snow the next.

I take a maximum group of 3 and spend the entire day answering photography, and wildlife questions. We work with different shooting techniques, and I teach folks how to work with the angles and the light.

Lots more info on these workshops on this page here<<<.








Below, I have images from my guests... thanks for supporting my business!!

Jackie Schuknecht




Joseph Ahmad


Mike Zahra

Randy E Zack


Jamie Morphy

Merry Christmas!!

Just left click on this image to open it, this right click to save it for your widescreen desktop.

Kind regarded from Daisy, Maria and myself and best wishes for 2010.

Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Wife

Thanks for being the best person in my life, and my inspiration, my dream girl!

Best wishes, from your loving husband, and Maria!

Duck!! ... One on One Workshops!

Sign up for a One on One!!

I am finally working on preparing a "one on one" workshop program, to help people whom are interested in spending a day in the field with me, and also, some photo shop training. Naturally, this is not for everyone, many / most of my customers have very advanced skills, lots whom are much better then I am at photography.

This single day workshop with one or at the most, 2 people will be prepare to work with your skill level as it is now, and help you improve your camera knowledge, lenses, software skills, wildlife skills, learn locations, birds in flight techniques, etc.

it take a lot of ingredients to make a quality wildlife photographer... and these skills are not obtained over night. Most people do not have time to work at this hobby every day for many hours to try to figure this game out, so I am here to help you save time and money, to give you a good start.

Please email me for more information. The base fee for this workshop is $300.00 CND for one person, and $400.00 for two photographers., the only additional charge is for fuel used.

My email... ray@raymondbarlow.com

Dec 17th Barred Owl Trek

Special thanks to Greg Ledermann for joining us all the way from north of Detroit Michigan! Greg spent the night in a motel near Brighton, we met at 8 am on the 17Th, and after a quick coffee, some fuel, and some breakfast on the fly, we headed for the owl locations... A wonderful day as my friend Alex Tompson joined us, along with Jason and Jerry from Windsor. Please take a minute to browse through Greg's excellent website here!!!

http://www.natureisart.com/

The fun began with our first owl, around 9 am... the sun was shining most of the day, so we were lucky to find the bird in a few shaded areas, with a more balanced light, and less contrast. The Katana Gimbal head was pretty awesome in the cool weather. shooting from the asphalt road sure makes it easy to get a level and solid base for low shutter speeds.

The weather was very chilly!! about -17C to -12C in the afternoon, so this bird was not too active. It spent the entire pm on a perch facing the warm sun, so the shooting wasn't too great. We left the owl a few times, and hiked around to find 4 more owls, but none were in very good lighting situations.

Hopefully some more snow will arrive in the area soon, and we can have another adventure with the awesome Barred Owls.

Take good care!! Please visit NIOM for some recent and very cool articles.

More images posted here soon., and more new details on future
barred owl runs Click here!!!

Barred Owl Trek

A Wonderful day Enjoyed with Several Friends

( To view the images in full size, click on the thumbnail, and then use your 'back" button to return to this page)


I was lucky to be able to get together with some good friends for a trek up to Brighton for some Barred owl shooting., we circled around the local Provincial Park for a while when Megan spotted the first owl in a marshy area, the bird seemed very keen on hunting at that point.

Shortly after we had set up our cameras, the bird moved off to a new perch... we had moved the vehicle well away from its first location, and we were all surprised to see the bird flush before anyone came close!

After maybe 15 minutes of shooting, the owl decided to head to another perch that looked much better for photography, so we followed it once. Another 15 - 20 minutes at this perch, and the bird looked sleepy, so we turned and left it alone. A run into town for some lunch, and we all thought we would go back to look for another owl, as there were 8 birds reported on the previous day.

A good look around, and we all got out of the vehicle for some hiking on foot. Maria and i separated from the group, and walked down a path. it was getting too cold for maria, and I could see she was getting sleepy, as we were up early at 5:30 am, so we turned around and headed back up the path for the truck. So who comes to visit us?? our friend from the am.

We called the rest of the group back, and watched this bird move from perch to perch, hunting on its own, it actually flew down into a ditch right in front of all of us, and came up with a large vole for its mid-day snack.

A few more frames, and the end of the day was near. Amazingly, after everyone had left, and it was just me, Maria, and Megan, the bird virtually followed us around.

These birds have a nests right in the campground. They are indeed very habituated with people, and most of them are very friendly. I look forward to a few more trips east for future visits to see these awesome owls of the woods!


All of these images were taken with the D300 - 200-400 VR, Katana Gimbal head, Gitzo 1340. this last image was fired at 1/3 second. The Katana Gimbal provides a very solid and flexable supprt for any long lens. I have never been able to aquire such sharp images at these low shutter speeds in the past. Thanks to Pro Media Gear for allowing me to work with, and test their products.

Thanks for following my blog, if you have any questions please email me here.... ray@raymondbarlow.com

November 28Th 2009 Muskoka Wildlife Center guest images.

thanks to my wonderful guests for these images...

John Leger



Douglas Voss


Jamie Strickland


Barbara Lynn


Mike Locking


Becky Locking
Barbara Lynn ( Becky is petting the Lynx kitten)