Horton

San Juan Island, 2024

Limited edition fine art print of 6 – In my entire twenty-plus year photography career, I have only seen owls a handful of times. In most instances, the lighting was way too dark to photograph them, so I just sat and enjoyed their presence. On other occasions, I didn’t have the camera gear on me to capture an image, leaving me happy for the experience but frustrated for not having my camera ready. While working on our documentary on San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest one early morning, I spotted this owl in the soft morning light while driving down the road. We were headed to a potential orca sighting, so I had to be quick. Our film is on orca and not owls, so it only made sense that I couldn’t spend too much time with this one. However, I made the most of my time with it, capturing a few very sharp images using the surrounding forest as a blank canvas for creation.  Photo © copyright by Derek Nielsen.