One of Marcus’s shots from the shoot. She’s only four months old, but Kaida looks like a true predator here!

We had birds of prey at Swanson Studio! This was such an exciting day for us for a couple reasons: one, because we never get to work with animals (other than humans of course!), and two, they were very active! At one point Dmitri, the Eurasian owl, flew up on top of one of our out-of-reach cabinets. Kit had to bring him down with a ladder! And, Kaida, the four-month-old Saker falcon was curiously poking around in between lights in the studio!

Marcus got the opportunity to “hold” Kaida on his arm. She’s young, but those are some sharp talons!

We have to thank Kit and Laurin from the Cascades Raptor Center for coming up from Eugene, and of course, Dmitri and Kaida, who were quite the talent!

Watch the behind the scenes video!!!!

Check out the polaroids.

Laurin, Dave, and Kit + and the birds of prey!

Dmitri is actually sleeping in this photo. This type of owl doesn’t sleep with its eyes closed, so how can you tell? By looking at its ears. They aren’t in this position unless he’s sleeping!

Kit and Dmitri’s polaroid!

Laurin and Kaida’s polaroid.

There was one point, where almost everyone in the studio had their phones out taking photos of the birds. After some facebook sleuthing, we found these instagram photos. Guess who took which one?

Kaida

Hmm, well we know that Nikki didn’t take this one!

I’m pretty sure that most people thought this was a photo of a fake owl. Real is right!

Thanks everyone! This was such a fun and different shoot than what we’re used to!