I am absolutely delighted.... no ecstatic to have had my image commended in the prestigious Landscape Photographer of the year awards 2018, such an honour and i cannot wait to see it printed in the official awards book upon its release on Tuesday and also then attend the awards ceremony in November!! 

Some of you may have read my original blog on this photo and others taken that night (if not you can read here http://www.peterbrooksphotography.co.uk/blog/storm-over-belle-tout/ )

I wrote that blog a year to the day that i took the image, it was also the day that i found out this had been shortlisted in the competition, having it shortlisted was already exciting and an honour, having followed the competition for years admiring the stunning photography i have dreamt of one day having a photo of mine grace the pages, it has been one of those bucket list todo things that i was working towards and i am so proud to have achieved one of my photography dreams especially with it being the first time i have entered! 

Congratulations to all the successful photographers and i look forward to meeting some of you at the awards ceremony!

If you follow me on any social media you would not have escaped my little owl pictures! throughout the summer i was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with this family and have a little insight in to their world.

I have wanted to photograph Little Owls in the wild for a while and over the last 2-3 years i have managed to find 3 locations near to where i live, the first two locations were extremely hard to get photos, i managed a couple but due to the location restrictions and lack of available time on my part i never got the shots i wanted, but then i met these guys!

The Little Owl was introduced to the UK in the 19th Century and is only 20-23cm tall but has a wingspan of over double that being 54 - 58cm.

Unfortunately Little Owl numbers are declining, down 24% between 1995 and 2008.

I find the best way to get the photos you want is research, find out the most you can about what you want to photograph, i generally use this approach for all my photography be it landscapes, weddings, people or wildlife,  
With wildlife the first challenge is finding the subject, especially with rare nocturnal or illusive species,  the more you know about the subject the more likely you will be able to find it, it is then a case if visiting suitable habitats at the right times of day or night and spending time listening, watching and looking for signs, you can of course take short cuts and visit one of the many paid hides where someone else has done this part for you and you can generally turn up and get stunning pictures with the perfect background and have choice of light direction etc and there is absolutely no problem with that, its great if you don't have time due to the pressures of life or just want to get some great shots but for me nothing beats finding a subject yourself and then working to get the shots you want, the photos often then tell a story and mean so much more. To the viewer i guess there is no difference but to me this is the thrill of wildlife photography.

Above is the first photo i took of a little Owl (well Owlet) at this site, i took this from my van one afternoon when i was driving near to where a few weeks before i had heard a little owl call, i had been back to the area a few times and would just park up various places to watch and listen, this little owlet suddenly appeared, i think we were both surprised to see each other, this little guy was pretty chilled, checked me out for a bit then flew off in the direction of a group of trees, over the next two weeks i visited the area a few more times and the same thing happened again and again, the only problem was they were flying onto private property, i couldn't investigate any further than i had without getting the land owners permission, queue google maps!! after looking on the maps and working out who owned the land i decided to pay them a visit and ask if they would mind me going on to the land and taking some photos, lucky for me they were the nicest people, told me they loved the owls and where they had seen them also said they sometimes have a barn owl too, i showed them my work and they loved it.
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As soon as i had permission to be on the land i thought i would go and check it out, i drove my van into an area by the trees i had seen them flying too making sure to keep a good distance and stay on the track (the track was well used and the land owners said the owls were used to the daily comings and goings and now didn't even bother looking up when they drove by) as i stopped and looked out my side window i was greeted with the view above, an inquisitive little owlet staring straight back at me from on top of a pile of logs, i was literally so excited! i sat still for a good 10 mins as i didn't want to scare the owl away but it just sat there watching me, i slowly moved the camera up and took a few shots before just watching again for a while, i wanted them to get used to my van and realise i wasn't a threat.

Being the beginning of July Sunrise was about 4.45 and the location being about 15 minuets from my house i was setting my alarm for about 4am to make sure i was getting to the location in place and ready for sunrise, this was also generally before the little owls arrived in their favourite tree, it can be hard getting up at 4am especially when you know you have a full day of work ahead plus all the normal day to day things to do but when you are sitting in a beautiful bit of the countryside with just the sounds of nature waking up and views like the photo above to look at, as the sun rises it all makes sense and you know exactly why you are doing it!

We had some gorgeous weather here in the South East of the UK this summer and some absolutely stunning sunrises to go with it, these gave some wonderful colours and the chance to get some wonderful images

The Owls got so used to me being there and so comfortable in my presence that they would at times be to close to get any pictures, other times they would fall asleep 5 meters away, this is when all the hard work has paid off and how wildlife photography should be, the subject always comes before any photo, i see far to many reports of people doing anything for "the shot" i think in a world where people value "likes" on social media more than they do anything else and instant gratification is required we need to do better.

Sometimes i would get to the location and it would appear that there were no Owls about, so i would sit quietly waiting and then id maybe see a small movement or something would just catch my eye and then i would remember why finding these guys in the first place is so hard, below is an image i took after sitting there for a few minuets thinking i was all alone, these owls are so small and so well camouflaged....... can you find the Owl??

As the dry weather continued i worried that the parents would struggle to find enough food for the 3 young but these two were amazing! there was a small pond nearby so water wasn't an issue and every morning i was there the little ones were being fed a variety of worms and insects and to my surprise frogs were forming a large amount of their diet.

I had such a fantastic time watching and photographing this little family, i hope to visit them over the winter altho sadly the little ones would have left the area now, and i look forward to seeing another group of little ones next year, this time i'm hoping to watch them from the first time they look out of the nest through to when they leave to find their own territories, until then keep an eye on my social media for updates on the adult pair,  i'll leave you with some more images,

Thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed it.