Jack Merlin in flight

[arash_hazeghi]

The Jack Merlin was my nemesis bird. We saw him briefly in 2014 when shooting with Dave in SoCal. Unfortunately it was right before a storm and with poor light I couldn't get the shot I wanted. During thanksgiving I went to shoot with Dave again, initially he didn't show up and I had almost lost hope. On the last evening just an hour before when I was leaving, we decided to do another circle in the area just in case and our luck stroke. The Jack Merlin was eating a bird on a perch. We could pull up close and I made some frames including this flight frame. He is small and flies quite fast so I was happy to grab this frame

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1D-X 600II + 1.4X III. ISO 800. f/5.6 1/3200sec hand held. processed with DPP 4.3. I hope you like it.

[Jim Neiger]

Fantastic image, Arash! Best I've seen of this bird!

[dankearl]

Wow.....

[Lorant Voros]

Looks almost unreal...like 3D silver effect. Really cool, track sharp beautiful detail. Wow indeed. TFS.

[Karl Egressy]

As Jim indicated, one of the best shots of this species. The California sun (and the shooter) does justice to the species.

[annmpacheco]

Wow, jaw dropped!!!

[John Hackney]

Magnificent capture Arash. I can attest to the speed at which these little falcons fly.

[keith mitchell]

Incredible detail and sharpness especially with a bird that fly's as fast as these do, excellent.

Keith.

[Mike Poole]

Superb shot - amazing how you consistently seem to get those head angles. Is there a technique you use, or is it down to your positioning in the field and subject knowledge?

Mike

[Raybel Robles]

Beautiful image. Lovely clean BG, Sharp Subject and great HA.

[Loi Nguyen]

This is awesome Arash. Congrats. Loi

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Brilliant image, Arash. Echo all the positives above.

[Glenn Conlan]

A winner! You nailed this flight shot, great timing. What a great subject to photograph. We shot him yesterday but never in flight.

[Gerald Gardebled]

Good shot of an non easy to photograph bird. It seems to still have its prey in his claws.

[arash_hazeghi]

Superb shot - amazing how you consistently seem to get those head angles. Is there a technique you use, or is it down to your positioning in the field and subject knowledge?

Mike

Hi Mike, The key is the hand holding technique, I explain the details in my flight guide. cheers

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks everyone

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent flight pose and sharp details, Arash.

[David Salem]

What a great experience that was!! I can't believe how close he let us get to him out of the car. We missed a bunch of frames when he took off but I'm glad you got this one. The colors and BG are awesome. Nice shot Arash.