Brandeis Magazine

I was packing up my camera gear after an off-campus photo shoot when my phone started blowing up with texts and voicemails. The news? A barred owl had settled in a birch tree next to the Shapiro Campus Center, apparently unruffled by gawkers 15 feet below.

Everyone thought we needed a great photo of this real-life Ollie before he flew away. I loaded my car and drove as fast as I could back to campus. A group of colleagues anxiously ushered me out to the owl’s perch.

Click-clack. I got him. Crisis averted.

— University photographer Mike Lovett