When the magic happens: photographing owls in low light

What's the best time of day for wildlife photography? Logically enough, it depends on when the wildlife you want to photograph is active. Bird photographer and Canon Ambassador Jonas Classon specialises in photographing owls and other nocturnal animals, so for him wildlife photography comes with the additional technical challenges of night photography. But far from being daunted by this, he loves it.

"For me, when the sun sets, that's when the magic happens," he says. "The colours in the sky turn orange and blue and purple, and a different world comes to life. It's when the animals come out that are hidden during the day. Here in Sweden we see moose and wolves, a host of animals and birds that just don't appear when the sun's up. The couple of hours after sunset and before sunrise are my prime time for shooting."

Jonas didn't take up owl photography lightly. He has been passionate about bird photography since around the same time that he started his own general photography business at the age of just 15. He has since tried to bring everything he's learned about commercial, news and wedding photography to photographing birds, portraying them and their stories in the same way as he portrays people. His characterful shot of a great grey owl titled Night Hunter has won multiple awards, and he has recently completed a series of owl images for an upcoming book.

Here, Jonas sheds some light on his passion for night photography and reveals his approach to photographing owls and other nocturnal wildlife.

What are the challenges for wildlife photographers working in low light?

"You get a fairly limited window of opportunity. With my great grey owl project, for example, the owls sometimes start to hunt only when all the light has gone. With some nocturnal creatures, you can use a flash, but not with owls. Either way, a flash will generally only scare creatures away. Really, nocturnal photography is a fight against the clock because I want the late-night colours and the bluish hue, but I have to get the shot before all the light is completely gone."

How do you personally prepare for a night shoot?

"When I'm out in the forest, tracking a bird like the great grey owl, I'll start well in advance. I try to learn the behaviour and the different hunting spots, so I can plan where I need to be when the time comes to shoot. When birds have chicks in the nest, you can work out their flight paths, from the hunting spots back to the nests. You know that once they've caught something, they'll always fly back to the nest with their prey. You can then think about how the light will be playing out at twilight and how it will be affected by factors like dense woodland, as well as what will make a good background. All of this will help you be in the best location, ready to shoot."

What is your go-to Canon lens for a job such as this?

"If you'd asked me what my favourite lens was a few months ago, I'd have said the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x without hesitation. But I began using a Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM a couple of months ago and I've started to change my opinion. Naturally, it doesn't have the ability of a zoom lens to change perspective, but the performance is incredible and the extra f-stop in aperture width enables me to shoot further into the night.

"The zoom lens works really well for wolves and larger animals, but for owls and other birds you tend to work at the longest focal length anyway, because you can never really get close. The image stabilisation is so good in both of these lenses that I can shoot handheld at 1/50 sec and get consistently sharp shots."

Do you ever get lost or stranded while out shooting in the dark?

"Most of the time I take a smartphone with a mapping app and I store the location of where I left my car. But sometimes I have no reception and the map is just a blank page. There have been occasions when I've just had to wait for the sun to rise so I can navigate back to the car, but I don't mind. Sometimes it's nice to make a night of it and enjoy being part of nature."