Wildlife photographer who ‘dares to dream’

A WILDLIFE photographer waited three weeks to capture a family of barn owls on camera.

Simon Booker, 61, received a tip off from villagers in Goring to the whereabouts of the nesting place, which was in a private barn near Icknield Road.

They had recognised the shrill pitch made by the apex predators, which are a protected species.

Mr Booker, who lives in South Stoke, said the owls can be difficult to get close to and photograph. He said: “You just ride your luck. I’d been watching them for about three weeks on and off and barn owls are tricky because they’re usually only around at 5am or they come out at 9pm, depending on the time of year.

“I decided to turn up and the owners of the land were okay with me coming at the crack of dawn and at dusk. Owls are active at dusk and as soon as it gets light again and that’s when they disappear and take flight. In the evening, you have the opposite problem, so they might have a look out at about 9pm.

“There was a window in this barn and I just had to wait for them to stick their head out, which they didn’t often do until dusk. Photographically, that then becomes a really big challenge because you’ve got no light and the pictures are grainy.

“It just so happened that when I went there it was quite early, so it was in good light. I was in a hide and that camera I’ve got takes 20 frames a second, so I rattled off a few pictures at a very slow shutter speed.

“It was still quite challenging but when I got home and put them on the computer, I found that a couple of them were really sharp. It took a while but, with persistence, you can get there.”

Mr Booker, who is married with three children, works in sales management but has been photographing wildlife in his spare time for about six years.

He said: “With my day job, I know my way around the software tools. You can fix some of the pixelation in the images a bit so you can make the best of what you’ve got.

“I took a photo I was really proud of three years ago of some hares and this one of a barn owl is right up there. This one is unique because it’s very good quality and it’s looking right at me. The details of the eyes are amazing.

“You can’t go near their nest because they are on a red list. There's a huge fine if you do, so I kept my distance. I was about 30 yards away from the barn. You don't want to disturb them.”

He hopes to enter the photo for the Countryfile calendar next year and potentially the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Mr Booker typically shoots in the countryside in the three-mile radius to where he lives, so he regularly photographs in Goring and Woodcote.

He uses a pop-up hide and camouflage jacket to take pictures of wildlife without being seen and describes the successes of getting the perfect shot as giving him a surge of energy.

“When you get the opportunity, you suddenly get that sweaty palm moment,” he said. “You don’t want to screw it up because you’ve got the chance to get a really good picture. As soon as you’re sitting there in decent light and an animal or bird appears, you think, ‘Wow, great’.

“You get this momentary connection when an owl looks straight at you because they’ve got a piercing set of eyes. You think if the picture comes out, it’s going to be really good.

“I took a picture of an otter once in the same kind of circumstances. You almost just want to pack up and run home because you can’t wait to go to the computer and see if it’s as good as you thought it was going to be.

“The knack is passion because you have to have that passion to get out of bed at silly o’clock and go and do it. You also need perseverance because you’ve got to sit there for hours waiting for the 10 seconds you get with an owl to be able to capture it and it’s the same as with an owl or an otter or the animal you’re trying to capture.

“I’ve invested to a point where I’ve got some good quality kit but you have to know how to use it and that comes down to practice. When the owl appears out of the window for 10 or 20 seconds, I know I’m going to get the picture because I know my settings. I know how to do it and I’m ready to go.”

Mr Booker, who suffered a stroke in May two years ago, had been previously diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heartbeat.

He said: “I had to find a way to slow down a bit and take in the wildlife and nature surrounding us. There’s lots of historical, mythical things surrounding barn owls about the fact they bring good luck and things like that.

“If you watch a barn owl hunting, they’re just very beautiful because they float and they’re absolutely silent so there's a certain grace about them that a lot of other creatures don't have. They’re very graceful and technically they’re very good at what they do as well.”

Mr Booker has talked about his journey through photography for the Women’s Institute, including the Goring branch, and he is now an official speaker for the Oxfordshire Women’s Institute and has been booked about 20 times.

He has also made a charity calendar for the sixth year running, titled Dare to Dream, and it focuses on birds and animals. He hopes to sell about 200 copies, which will raise money for the Stroke Association.

In addition to pictures of barn owls, the calendar features a roe deer in a wheat field near Steventon, a robin taken at Warburg Nature Reserve in Bix, a yellow wagtail in Goring and a pheasant in Woodcote. He also shot at locations including the Hebrides in Scotland to photograph a white-tailed eagle and a sanderling, a small wading bird.

Mr Booker said: “I called it Dare to Dream because the January picture is a white-tailed eagle and to capture that was one of my dreams. It’s slightly bigger and taller than a golden eagle.

“I went up to the Hebrides and got myself a tour and went on a boat trip and they knew where a couple were nesting. I got in the boat and I managed to get a picture of one fishing.

“It was a picture I had in my head and I really wanted to get a particular shot with the talons outstretched to grab a fish and I managed to get one which is an amazing, amazing moment. I never expected to be able to witness this in the flesh.

“I went to the beach and I laid down and waited for an hour until I could get a good picture and as it happened, there was one that appeared on the beach that I managed to get a photo of. I waited by the breakers watching flocks of dunlins scamper up and down.

“That was a really special moment.”

Mr Booker chose the pictures for the calendar based on variety, quality and the reaction some have received on social media.

He said: “I try to just get a set of images that are a bit different so they are a nice sequence because people are going to look at them each month.

“I mix up the ones that I really like with the ones that I know resonate with people based on Instagram and Facebook and then I end up with about 20 and then I whittle them down.”

He has raised more than £2,000 to support the Stroke Association so far and hopes to make another £500 through sales of his calendar.

Mr Booker said: “I was selling them at some of these Women’s Institute talks and a lot of the ladies have bought them and it has really grown this year quite dramatically. Every time I do a talk, I take a percentage of everything I make and I give that to the Stroke Association.”

He recently visited Goring Primary School to tell the children aged four to 10 about the inspiration behind his photographs and how he captures them.

Mr Booker, who owns Stokerpix, said: “The kids loved it. They really enjoyed it, especially when you put camouflage gear on, they thought it was hilarious.

“The teacher sent me a WhatsApp a few days ago and one of the kids came to a ‘show and share’ and said, ‘I’m a photographer, Simon Booker inspired me’ and that was the best moment of the whole year.

“To think that some of the stuff I come out with actually inspires little kids to take pictures was just amazing.”

• A Dare to Dream calendar costs £14, with £2.50 from each sale donated to the Stroke Association, from tinyurl.com/3tphz5hd