On April 30th and May 1st I attended a raptor photographic shoot hosted by Les Voorhis of Royal Tine Images, Inc. based in Spearfish South Dakota. I had met Les at the Buffalo Roundup held at Custer SD the previous year where we discussed this upcoming project. I am primarily a bird photographer and adding some good shots of hawks and owls to my file didn't seem like a bad idea, however, as this was my first time shooting captive birds, I must admit I went into it with mixed emotions.

The shoot was to be held for two hours in the morning and another two hours in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday, which would allow us to take advantage of the best light of the day. We met at Reptile Gardens, a popular tourist stop in the Black Hills, at daybreak on Saturday morning. There were four photographers participating in the shoot, one from Utah, one from North Dakota, one from Minnesota and myself, from Wyoming. After introductions and a few minutes to get somewhat acquainted, we were off to see the birds. The birds were supplied by Wildlife Experiences, an educational organization based at, but not affiliated with, Reptile Gardens. We were soon introduced to their handler, Melissa Horton, and then on to the birds. I have seen many rehabilitated and captive birds before but I was not prepared for the sight of these birds, they were magnificent, above and beyond anything I had ever expected.

The light was beautiful that first Saturday morning but not near as beautiful as our first subject, an adult Red-tailed Hawk. This bird was astounding in color, size, and poise, just about anything a bird photographer could want, and she wasn't the least bit intimidated by our telephoto lenses staring at her. This was the main bird that I had come for, and if there had been no more I could have gone home happy. We were not done yet, however, our next subject was an adult male Peregrine Falcon that was just as magnificent as the red-tail. I have shot some Peregrines in the wild but none with the color of this one.

Before this shoot took place, Les had asked me what subjects I would prefer to shoot, and my answer was native species and that I wasn't all that interested in old world birds, but I knew some of the other photographers were so that was OK with me. That brings us to our next subject, the Eurasian Eagle Owl. Just before the bird was brought out Les walked up to me and said, "Wait till you see this bird, it's cool, looks like a Great-horned Owl on steroids"...and that it did. What a bird, about twice the size and weight of a Great-horned Owl and looking much like one but with the most beautiful orange eyes. After the Red-tailed Hawk, this bird quickly became my second favorite of the shoot.

The last bird of the first morning was a good-looking Barn Owl and after a session with him we quit until evening. As I walked back to my vehicle I realized that I had quite a few exposed rolls of Velvia in my pocket, many more that I thought I'd shoot. Incidentally, I was the only paying customer on the shoot that was still shooting film...a sign of the times.

After that first morning the weather turned cold and windy with some very light snow off and on, but this sure did not hurt the shooting. The even overcast light made for some great portraits and the streaks of snow in the background added a little extra to the shots. I came home on Monday with a great many very nice portraits of these hard to photograph birds.

Some of the other birds that we worked with were a great looking Harris Hawk, a molting Barred Owl that hated men, an excellent Bald Eagle, a Common European Buzzard, a Lanner Falcon and an Auger Buzzard from Africa. All of the birds were outstanding in their appearance except the poor Barred Owl who the handlers didn't even want to bring out because of her feather condition (or the lack of them), but she added a lot of character to the shoot with her no nonsense attitude toward men.

This was a fun shoot, and I feel we got much more than we paid for. I will file away many, many good images that would be very hard or impossible to get in the wild. As long as the slide is captioned that the bird is captive I won't have any problem in trying to sell them.

I was very happy with the professionalism of the shoot, Les did a good job of trying to satisfy the wants of everyone, not an easy task, and made everyone feel welcome and comfortable. After the morning shoots we would go have breakfast and discuss everything associated with wildlife photography and just photography in general.

The girls that handled the birds were outstanding; they made it clear right up front that they would do whatever it took to get the shot unless it stressed the bird and then it was over for that bird. Their welfare was first priority and you could tell by the condition of the birds and the affection between the birds and their handlers that they were number one. These birds were in the best of hands.

Would I recommend this to anyone else? You bet. Would I do it again? Absolutely!!

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