Falconry part 2.

V-Spec

V-Spec

V-Spec

Soldato
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I went back to the Falconry again today to watch another flight display, this time they flew the eagle owl a little longer as there were a few more people around, despite it having a 6ft wingspan and in the wild destroying foxes and small cats, he was rather a friendly chap..

Hobbit - the Eagle Owl, looking at me as though my pockets are full of dead chicks!

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A Harris hawk, the most trainable of Falcons, not too fond of the wind though!

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"Ace" the Peregrine Falcon, this guy was coming towards me at around 90mph (no i'm not joking) and was a real nightmare to track, he swooped up and flew about 15" above my head, totally silent apart from the air moving slightly. The falconer cannot feed him by hand as Peregrines must attack their prey, he swings a lure with a dead chick attached to it, around in the air and "Ace" lines up in the sky, folds his wings in and comes down like a bullet, the reaction times and overall senses of these creatures are just 100x quicker than you can imagine.

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"Hobbit" flying towards me, he landed on the bench next to me, honked loudly and then flew back to the post, lol.

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monkeyspank said:
Lovely, no. 3 is my favourite. Do you think you would have got away with a slower shutter speed?
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I could have, however I wanted to shoot wider than F4 to blow out the background, so ISO 250 @ F2.8 in the light equals around 1/2500th of a sec, I overexposed 2/3rds of a stop, to make it 1/2000th of a sec. To be honest its hard enough to actually find the bird then keep the camera locked on, shutter speed is normally the least of my worries when doing bif shots.
 
V-Spec said:
I could have, however I wanted to shoot wider than F4 to blow out the background, so ISO 250 @ F2.8 in the light equals around 1/2500th of a sec, I overexposed 2/3rds of a stop, to make it 1/2000th of a sec. To be honest its hard enough to actually find the bird then keep the camera locked on, shutter speed is normally the least of my worries when doing bif shots.
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I bet! The focus is amazing. Thanks for the info. I have been trying to get shots of a robin hovering so I'm interested, as a noob :) The wing tips blur seems to be a mix of DOF (compared to the feet)
and maybe shutter speed?
 
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Post the first one in GD for funny captions lol

Stunning inspirational shots as always.
 
love the 3rd shot - you always amaze me with the shots! btw what ratio of shots dp ypu take to the ones that come out well?
 
slothmeister said:
Beautiful shots, can i ask what you're are shooting with?
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Cheers :)

These were taken with a 1D MkIII, and 300mm F2.8 L IS USM lens, although as discussed in last weeks thread, you can get shots like this with most cameras/lenses, flight shots would require a pro body, especially the ones of the Peregrine!

Alan! said:
The shot of the harris hawk is my favorite.:D

Any particular reason why you aren't shooting the entire bird. i.e the pic of the harris hawk looks more like a human portrait, focused on the face. I'd love to see the whole of the bird, talons and all!
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The Harris Hawk was a bit annoyed with the wind, as a result he didn't like being on the post much, he was more interested in sitting in the grass and eating dead chicks lol, to be honest I could have taken one with 70-200 zoomed out which would have included all of him, but I didn't like the perspective of looking down on him from above, as it makes him look a bit "insignificant" it looked good in the snow last week though!

33L said:
love the 3rd shot - you always amaze me with the shots! btw what ratio of shots dp ypu take to the ones that come out well?
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Cheers!

The results are dependant on the bird and my/cameras ability to track it.. The peregrine did 2 flybys, both were close to 100mph and he was all over the place, I missed him the first time, the second time I managed to get 2 shots one was in, the other was out. There were a few photographers there and none of them attempted the flight shots lol.
The hard part is having to use centrepoint focus only, the bird is too small for anything else. In order to get focus lock you need to focus on the bird when its quite far away, and allow the camera to figure it out before the bird becomes big enough in the frame, all the time following its exact movement otherwise the camera loses it and hunts to the background... Its great fun though, I seriously did want a "down the barrel" shot of a peregrine so I was happy with just the one, they are the fastest creatures on the planet anyway :D
 
Joe T said:
Can I please ask for the name of the centre where you go? Thanks. :)
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Sure, they're captive birds so no secrets with these guys!, the place is Woodside Falconry near Langworth about 6 miles outside of Lincoln, on the road to Skegness, http://www.woodsidefalconry.com/

I might be giving them a call to see if they'll allow a couple of hours out in the woods with some of the birds for photography, they hunt partridge and game birds, would love to get some shots of the Peregrine when its in "kill" mode... :cool:

Just getting my gear ready to go out on the fens and find some wild owls... its a damn site harder but far more rewarding!
 
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