I went on a Photography Experience Day with my Father at Swinton Estate Bird of Prey in Ripon North Yorkshire on the 28th June 2026.
Quick Overview 📍 Location: Swinton Estate, Ripon
🌿 Habitat Type: Garden estate grounds, woodland, moorland, barns
🎯 Target Species: Birds of Prey
📅 Best Season: All year round
🕒 Best Time of Day: 10-4pm
💰 Cost: £120 each
📅 Booking Required: Yes, see website for dates
The experience includes a day (10am-4pm) photographing the Birds of Prey that live in the avairy at the Swinton Estate Hotel. The day is run by Jed Wee of Essence of Light Photography. Jed has been running the photography side of this experience for a while now and is very knowledable on the birds and the best way to compose your shots.
On this day we got the opportunity to photgraphy 10 owls.
- Apex – Eurasian Eagle owl (Juvenile)
- Button – Tawny Owl
- Anthony – Little Owl
- Gary – Barn Owl
- Albert – Barn Owl
- Nymeria – Snowy Owl
- Maisie – Long Eared Owl
- Aziraphale – Great Horned Owl (Juvenile)
- Sahara – Abyssinian Owl
- Willow – Great Grey Owl
The photography day included a light lunch at the Bivouac Cafe on the estate, this was excellent and plenty of tea & coffee to go around.
The day I went was very warm, I regreted not wearing a hat! Note to any follically challenged like myself – wear a hat in the summer if you go.
We started off in the morning around 10am with a group of 8 people. Apex the juvenile Eurasian Eagle Owl was first up, we did static shots of him as he is still learning the job.
We then had Button the Tawny Owl and took some shots in the wild flower garden which was in bloom and looked amazing. Lots of colours to create a nice background for the owl shots. We then drove with Jed and Mandy to the lunch site.
Following lunch, we headed to some abandoned barns on the estate and took Anthony the Little Owl and Gary the Barn Owl with us. These again were static shots within the barn to get some natural looking photos.
We then headed back to the estate and did some flight shots with Albert the Barn Owl, Nymeria the Snowy Owl and Maisie the Long Eared Owl. Before moving Maisie to the trees for some more static shots. We then had some time with Aziraphale the Great Horned Owl juvenile who has been raised with Apex as they’re a hatch day apart. He did a small amount of flying and then some static shots.
The day ended with some static shots of Sahara the Abyssinian Owl and Willow the Great Grey Owl.
All in all a great day out and I came away with over 4500 photographs to look through and I edited about 90 of these. I would defintley go back and do this at another time of the year to get some different type of shots with different weather.
Who Is This Best For?
✔ Beginners
✔ Advanced wildlife photographers
✔ Behaviour shooters
✖ Landscape photographers
✖ Portrait shooters
Camera Settings & Gear I Used
Body: Nikon Z8
Lens: Nikon Nikkor 180-600mm
Support (tripod/beanbag): Non
Typical Settings I use:
- Shutter speed: Varies depending on static or flight shots
- Aperture: F6.3
- ISO setting: ISO640
- Focal length: 180 to 600mm with the lens I used. Up to 400mm is ok.
Leave a Reply