About 13 years ago I was just getting in to photography and like most people I photographed everything (badly) but learnt the essentials about depth of field, ISO etc. I used to buy every photography magazine out there, an obsession was already forming, then one day I saw a photo in a magazine, which literally changed my life, guess what it was, ok yep you guessed, it was a Barn Owl hunting over a grassy field at sunrise, never before or since has a single photo changed my life, I thought wow thats what I want to photograph, but how, where?

I was fortunate to live in Norfolk, I had already been up to the coast and much to my joy I had found a few good places, Salthouse being a particular favourite and practised and practised with the waders that fed there, I even took my camera to work and photographed gulls in flight by the river and got as good as I could get at flight shots hand held. 

I soon realised to get the type of shots I wanted my gear wasn’t really up to the job, so the next week I left a local camera store a few thousand pounds lighter.

Now i was ready, I just had to find some Barn owl locations, after several thousand miles (literally) I started to find them, winter was really good and I soon learnt the type of habitat they frequented. After much waiting and searching I got my first shots on a cold winters morning, not great shots but I had done it, i’d found my own location, from that day I polished my craft and could then not just photograph the owls but select the best places for lighting, best times of the day, learn behaviour traits, my fieldcraft improved and my photographs improved dramatically, this was the first chapter which lasted 7 years, i’m now ready for the next one…

Nigel Pye