Blog
March 16, 2025
The Indian Scops Owl is one of my favourite bird species of all time. Mysterious, elusive, and perfectly camouflaged, these pocket predators are always high up on my list of targets whenever I visit Bharatpur. During my previous encounter with this species, well, let’s just say I had an absolute blast!
This time, however, things were quite different. There was only a single observable Scops Owl pair in the park, for one. They were also perched on a Palm Tree right outside a major tourist hotspot. With that being said, I was determined to at least try and capture an image that reflects this species’ shy nature and the dense habitat they live in.
This is going to be a rather short one (No promises)…
Owl-lo there!
Allow me to set the scene.
The Scops Owls I photographed were hidden within the crowns of a cluster of Palm Trees close to a popular landmark within the park. The area was quite heavily populated at the time, and the deep shade caused by the Palm fronds meant the light was close to non-existent (for the purposes of photography, anyway).
Navigating through dense brush and a vast network of spider webs, I arrived at the Scops Owl roost. Peeking through my binoculars, I managed to spot a pair perched high up on the edge of a frond. While I stood beneath the tree that the Scops Owls were sat on, I tried to capture a habitat shot using my trusty old 24-70mm. I was hoping to show off the textures of the palm fronds with the owls being the focal point. As a concept, it seemed quite interesting to me, but, as it often turns out in the field, there were just too many things going on simultaneously for the image to work.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know I don’t usually act on instinct. I like to prepare my compositions beforehand, conceptually at least. Clarity of thought is something I value very highly. I genuinely enjoy spending hours visualising images and ideas that may not even materialise in reality. Deliberation – the act of taking things slow – is the core component of my entire photography process. You get the picture (pun intended).
Well all of that just went out of the window.
While I was very careful not to attract attention from critters and people alike, in my attempts to reposition and seek a better angle, I inadvertently stepped on a dead twig on the forest floor, setting off the owls’ alarms. They immediately ceased their preening and shifted their attention over to me.
It was time for a strategic retreat.
Seeing Before Seeing.
Once ‘Plan A’ went sideways, I was at a bit of a loss as to how I wanted to approach the scene.
Trudging back to my rickshaw, I was faced with 2 choices:
1. Try the same composition again on a different day in the hope that the Scops Owls will change their location and/or pose to better suit the image design I had in mind.
2. Find a different perspective to shoot the owls through.
I chose the latter.
Photography is a game of angles. A singular step to your left or right might just make you view the world in a whole different light. This is doubly true when working with long telephoto lenses.
As I ruminated on my approach, I grabbed my 500mm lens and paced around the Palm Tree in circles (to much amusement and confusion of the many visitors and temple-goers), hoping to find a crack in the foliage to shoot through. In spite of copping a few odd looks, after about 30 minutes of searching, I did manage to find just the tiniest of openings – I’m talking a few centimetres wide – to photograph the owl through. But let’s take a step back first.
What do you do when you’re faced with unfamiliar environments, skulky subjects, and unfavourable shooting conditions?
Resign.
You create.
Visualisation.
I’d venture as far as to say that the ability to visualise your compositions and your surroundings is the single most powerful tool you could have in your toolbox as a photographer. Let’s break it down.
1. Detach yourself from your own perspective of the world – Sounds weird, I know, but bear with me. What I mean by this is, oftentimes, our perspective of reality is deeply rooted in what our eyes see. We only see what we see – nothing more, nothing less – when reality is so much greater than what our individual perception of it is. Take a step back. Try to position yourself behind, say, a leaf. See what it sees – observe the movement of the clouds and how it affects the light. Place yourself in the figurative shoes of a grasshopper and realise how massive you must seem to the arthropod. Everything is relative; the possibilities are truly endless.
2. Make a mental map of your surroundings – Be present. Take mental note of every individual tree, plant, log and puddle you come across. Design a mental bubble of your surroundings – a figment of reality you can interact with. Imagine yourself walking around in this mind palace, visualising your composition and how your perspective changes with every step you take, all without the need to physically move an inch.
3. See through your subject – Let’s just pretend your subject doesn’t exist for a second. What’s the background like? Are there any distracting elements present in the scene that could be a potential deal-breaker? A stray stick, perhaps? And what’s the light like – harsh or soft, cool or warm? Could moving a few inches in either direction improve the overall composition? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself in the field in order to give yourself the best chance of capturing images that are impactful and well thought out.
Now, let’s put all of that into practice.
Perspective is King.
My main gripe with this location was the density of the surrounding foliage. As I moved away from my initial position (Location #1 in the illustration above) beneath the tree, I lost sight of the Scops Owls. The Palm fronds were far too numerous and the deep shadows they cast rendered the scene awfully dark. Nevertheless, I had a general idea of the owls’ elevation in relation to their surroundings, so I decided to use that as an anchor point.
I wanted to put more distance between myself and the birds too for a couple of reasons. The most obvious one is that I wanted to avoid spooking the owls at all costs – I’d never want to capture an image at another being’s expense. The other reason was that by placing myself further away from the roost site, I’d be able to photograph the birds from a much more moderate shooting angle, albeit at the cost of increased distance. Not a problem, however. That’s what tele-converters are for, right? I was quite proud of my decision-making here.
Narrator: It was, in fact, not a good decision.
Tumbling through yet another spider web, covered in all sorts of dead and decaying matter thanks, in part, to my clumsiness, I found a tiny gap in the foliage. Just the break I was hoping for. I had a sufficiently good view of one of the owls as it slept unperturbed by my presence. Leaning against the massive trunk of a fallen tree, I steadied myself. The light was soft enough, my composition was workable, my settings were….oh dear.
This is where I hit my next roadblock.
Attaching a tele-converter meant I had to forego a whole stop of light in a situation where I needed every little bit of it. The lack of light also threw my camera’s autofocus out of whack. In addition, the wind had started to pick up, too, introducing even more variables into the mix.
Suffice it to say, I was not having a good time.
When The Going Gets Tough, Shoot Anyway.
Regardless of the absolute mess I was in, I decided to commit to the plan. I fired a short burst of images, pausing to refine my composition. Moving a couple of millimetres to the left, leaning forward slightly, I shot another burst, with this set being even more convincing than the first. This process continued for a while, the now-bored tourist group having dispersed in pursuit of actual wildlife. There was some semblance of quiet – the first real sense of calm in a predominantly chaotic session.
I rarely carry a tripod around when I’m shooting with a big telephoto prime lens. It seems rather counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? My reasoning for it is that I often move around quite a lot when shooting at longer focal lengths. I like to play around with foregrounds and try new perspectives, and carrying a tripod around and having to set it up is just incompatible with my style of photography. A tripod certainly has its benefits, but I’m way more comfortable using natural elements to brace myself when need be.
I may have shot around 3,000 images of this Scops Owl alone. Every time I saw a sharp image on the back of my camera, I dropped my shutter speed even further, hoping to improve the image quality by dropping the ISO values, and this is as low as I could get without compromising on sharpness. At even slower shutter speeds, the wind proved a bit too much to handle.
Conclusion.
So this was a challenge. Looking back, I certainly derived more enjoyment from the act of photographing this individual than the actual image itself. Finding the right perspective was tough work, and I was thrilled to be able to show a few tourists their first clear sight of this species in the process. It’s always such a pleasure to be able to share the love of birds with other people. As I mentioned earlier, Scops Owls are among my favourite birds to work with and I never pass up an opportunity to spend time with them. I was pretty chuffed to walk away with an image of this species given the circumstances and the dense habitat they live in.
On that note, thanks again for reading! I hope you found this post informative and enjoyable. See you in the next one, whenever that comes out!