about me
Hi, I’m Shayna and if you haven’t already guessed I’m a bit of a bird person. I’m a Jersey City-based graphic designer/photographer; most of the birds featured on items at Sleeping Owl Studio are ones I’ve seen somewhere in New Jersey (if you’re really wondering, the exception is the Great Gray Owl; I had to go to Minnesota for that one!). Over the years I’ve gone back and forth between photography and drawing/illustration and it felt like time to do something outside of photography. The items offered on this site are (of course) birdy and quite heavy on the owl side of things at the moment. The embroidered patches are based on my illustrations (which can also be found on the stickers). My photography’s also on flickr and instagram and Sleeping Owl Studio’s on instagram as well.
I do a bit of design work to help out a few local non-profits, and some of the ideas for the type of things to put on this site stemmed from what seemed to work with those projects — or what was asked for later on. I hope you enjoy what’s here and I welcome suggestions on what you’d like to see in the future!
why Sleeping Owl Studio?
When I started on this project, I was pretty sure I wanted to use an owl in the name and logo* but then how could I pick a species? And would that even make sense? Then while trying to pick favorites, it occurred to me that my favorite kind is the sleeping kind. Well, or the talons-out sparring kind (think Short-eared Owls) but I went with sleeping.
Among people into birds, owls are probably the most sought-after group (well, unless Gyrfalcons count as a group). The problem with owls is they’re both secretive and very easily disturbed. So, there’s a lot of talk about ethical bird photography and especially ethical owl photography. A problem, at least in my area, is people approaching an owl so closely that it causes the owl to somehow change its behavior, which can be anything from the owl becoming alert to flying away (flushing).
Anyone who’s spent any time around birds has caused a bird to become stressed or fly when it shouldn’t have (I’m no exception**). Hopefully, the more you learn the more you try not to cause birds to react at all. That means very different things for different types of birds. For owls, most of which are nocturnal, the goal becomes to observe a sleeping owl, briefly, and then leave it to its rest. I’ve included some of my favorite photos of sleeping owls, taken under very different conditions — some I found and observed alone and others were seen by many — the common theme is staying at a distance that doesn’t disturb the owl (and not clapping or yelling or whatever to get it to wake up — yep, I’ve seen that happen). All photos are taken with either a 500mm or 600mm lens (and sometimes a teleconverter), using a camera with a cropped sensor.
The logo is an Eastern Screech owl (yes, I know it looks a bit like a cat! — Screech Owl ear tufts aren’t nearly that big in relation to their heads); they come in a gray and red-orange morph. Since I couldn’t pick a “favorite” species I may change the logo from time to time to feature some other sleeping owls.
*There was a moment where I was going to go with a Spotted Sandpiper — because females of that species are basically in charge at mating season: they establish territory and sometimes even have more than one mate — but then heard about the Feminist Bird Club and they’ve already featured a Spotted Sandpiper for just that reason. So owls it is!
**My first Saw-whet Owl sighting involved me pretty much walking into the tree the owl was in, albeit unwittingly… it didn’t fly but it was very aware of my presence. My next sighting (in the photo featured here) was entirely different: some Fox Sparrows alerted me to the owl’s presence (they flew into a tree then flew right back out — hmmm, that was weird) and I was able to spot and observe the owl, never seeing it open its eyes. Some raptors flush if you look at them from 100 yards away and others will land 15 feet away from you if they’re busy with some other bird business and you don’t seem too threatening. It’s all relative and can be very specific to the bird.