Nature Photography Blog

John Slonina is a professional nature photographers. His company Slonina Nature Photography leads instructional photo tours and workshops throughout the United States. His photo tours visits several national parks which include Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Mt Rainier, Olympic, Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Mt Rainier, Olympic, Arches, Canyonlands, Everglades, Big Cypress, Katmai and Lake Clark.

 

Never Give Up

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Sometimes going the extra mile pays off.

On Saturday I was with my 9 year old son. He wanted to go look for wildlife particularly snowy owls.

I love any opportunity to teach my kids about the outdoors and nature.

Here is the catch it was 2 o'clock and it get dark about 4:30 pm. We were one hour away so very little time for a gamble and less than an hour to find one. One the way down we got stuck in a traffic jam so I told him we would go another day. He looked disappointed and said "Don't give up". How could I back down now.

We ended up arriving about 4 pm with less than a half hour to find anything. He got his first camera for Christmas and he was ready to go. We immediately found a group of white tailed deer which he photographed. What I didn't realize was a snowy owl was perched on the group among them. Here we go now its going to get interesting.

The snowy owl flew in the air and started dive bombing a couple of the deer. Suddenly a short eared owl came by and the snowy went after him. Soon after a northern harrier flew by. Wow. Incredible Drama. Here is one of the pictures I got of the snowy owl landing in a tree.

What an incredible day for both of us. I hope my son never forgets this day I won't.