April Stampe will present “Owl Photograpy. Tips to Improve your Images and Ethics to Guide Your Practices.”

April Stampe lives in Winnipeg Manitoba and currently works as a Palliative care nurse. With the difficult nature of her day job, photography helps her decompress while enjoying wildlife in the great outdoors.

She is a 100% self taught photographer and currently shoots with the Sony Alpha system. In general, her photography style focuses less on individual camera settings and more on the overall composition while out in the field. Her favourite images often include a bit more of the environment around her subject, instead of the close up shots. 

Over the years April has had the honour of having her images selected in “Audubon’s top 100” and has been featured in “Area News” and “Canadian geographic” magazines. She has used her photography to support the Manitoba Burrowing Owl Recovery program (MBORP) and she also volunteers as a content creator for Wildlife Haven, helping them document their work caring for sick and injured wildlife.

While photography is just a hobby for her right now, she aspires to be able to use it to support conservation efforts in Manitoba

In this presentation, April will discuss general tips to help you find owls and tips to improve your images. She will go over composition, lighting, and how to get the best shots possible when dealing with busy twig-filled scenes. She will also spend some time discussing the importance of practicing good ethics when photographing owls and how your actions as a photographer can impact these sensitive species. She will discuss the importance of keeping locations off social media and discuss how learning the behaviour of the species you’re photographing can help you get the shots you want, without causing stress to your subject.