Photographer Brad Wilson spent patient, painstaking hours photographing these owls housed at the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis and The Wildlife Centernear Española, New Mexico. Wilson described the difficulty in photographing such creatures,
“It’s hard to get animals to look at you like humans do. That shot became my holy grail.”
These shots are part of Wilson's series “Affinity,” which features 65 species, including a white rhino, a white tiger, an Arctic fox, and an Egyptian Vulture. Yet Wilson said that of all his animal subjects, the owls were the most challenging.
Read more about Wilson's experience photographing the owls at Audubon, and visit his website to see the stunning images from Affinity and Affinity II.