Behrend student builds award-winning photo portfolio

ERIE, Pa. — Jordan DeLauer knew that a barred owl was living in the woods at Penn State Behrend. He had heard it, and others had seen it. Yet, the bird eluded him.

With his Canon T7 camera in hand, DeLauer, a third-year student in Behrend’s electrical engineering program, searched for the owl, a species with some of the best vision in the animal kingdom. It likely saw him coming from a mile away.

It took a few feet of snow and an unexpected day off from classes for DeLauer to finally spot the owl, its big brown eyes high above him, taking shelter from the storm.

“When campus was shut down because of all the snow after Thanksgiving break, I was able to go outside and have some fun in the snow,” DeLauer said. “I had been looking all semester for that owl, and there it was. I could hardly believe it.”

He slowly lifted his camera, focused, and captured an image of the wide-eyed owl sitting on the branch of a snow-filled pine tree. In the photos he posted on his Instagram page, the owl is perfectly highlighted by the dark and moody forest light that surrounds it.

Was that image luck, or skill?

Maybe a bit of both, DeLauer said.

“There’s some luck that goes into getting a great image,” he said. “You can accidentally capture a good shot. But you can use your skill to improve your luck, especially when shooting wildlife.”

Last year, with a little luck, some skill and a handful of acorns, DeLauer won the Penn State Today 2024 fall photo contest. He had submitted an image of a chipmunk stuffing its cheeks on a millstone behind Glenhill Farmhouse.

“I had a little more hand in that photo,” DeLauer said. “I saw a bunch of acorns near the Science Complex parking lot, and I thought I could use them to attract blue jays.”

He put a pile of acorns on the millstone and waited, but no birds came.

“What I didn’t expect was how much interest chipmunks would have in that pile of nuts,” he said. “They kept coming back and grabbing more.”

‘Take it to the next level’

DeLauer’s interest in photography started with a smartphone.

“I have always liked technology and having the latest gadgets,” he said. “When smartphone cameras improved, I started taking a lot of photos with my phone. Eventually, I decided to take it to the next level and buy a real camera.”

In the summer of 2023, he invested in a Canon T7.

“I had no clue what I wanted to shoot,” he said. “The entire world was suddenly open to me, and it was kind of overwhelming. I decided to go to Presque Isle State Park and see what I could find.”

At the park, he spotted two kinds of heron — a green and a great blue — and posted his best image on an Instagram page dedicated to his new hobby.

Over time, the photos he posted continued to improve.

“If you look through my page from the beginning to now, you can see that it is a gradual process,” he said. “I want people to understand that it takes time and a million photos to improve. That’s why I haven’t deleted anything.”

His first 10,000 photos are probably his worst, DeLauer said. The next 10,000 were “maybe average,” he said.

“I post the best photos, but I might have taken 3,000 and spent two hours getting them,” he said.

It’s not wasted time, he said, but a welcome change of pace.

“It’s nice to go from sitting in front of a computer all day to going outside and getting some fresh air,” he said. “The other nice thing is that while photography gives me some quiet, solitary time, I’ve also found that it’s a way to connect with others.”

He has become friends with other photography enthusiasts he has encountered while shooting at Behrend. In that and other ways, the hobby has opened his eyes to more of the world around him.

“You start to see things you would never have noticed while walking to class,” he said. “All around you, there are so many interesting things going on: Birds eating berries, a fox running into the woods, squirrels chasing each other around a tree, a hawk sitting high above you.”

Students interested in following in DeLauer's footsteps can participate in Penn State Today's 2025 winter photo contest, open now through Feb. 17.