I was breaking down a live shot at Pine Street School (Spartanburg, SC, election day, polls had closed, just me in the parking lot) when I saw this enormous owl perched atop a sign a couple of yards from the back of the truck. His head wheeled around and he looked right at me. I had to try and roll on him so I slowly backed away and fumbled for my cam. I was sure he would get spooked and fly away, so I didn't even try to set up my tripod. I just started rolling before I came back around the corner. The first part of the vid is shaky but I got a pretty good look at him. I realized he wasn't bothered by me so I went back to get my sticks. When I came back, he had flown down to the pavement and appeared to be munching on something. You then see him fly off out of frame, up to a fence post. At this point I decided to try and do something about the lighting (even with the frezzi and 12dB gain it was still too dark). So I kept the cam rolling and went back to the truck and pointed the Q beam at him. He was pretty unflappable, like he owned the place. Anyway, a pretty pointless video but I had never seen an owl in the "wild" that close before. From my internet searches, I'm pretty sure it was a Barred Owl. THIS WAS NOT FOR AIR, Vimeo gods -- so please don't delete this newbie's first effort. Hope you enjoy.
