David Salem
08-21-2018, 01:58 AM
In the world of North American raptors there are three basic models. The short wing hawks, which consist of Sharpies, Coopers hawks and Goshawks. Broad wings, which consist of Red Tailed, Rough legged, Red shouldered hawks and many other Buteos. And the Long wings, which is the term used for true falcons, like Prairie falcons, Gyr falcons and this beautiful male Peregrine. You can see in this shot why it is named long wing.
Those thin long wings are made to cut through the air and when folded up in a dive (stoop), they are the fastest animals on the planet. There used to be a lot of controversy about the actual speed a falcon can atain in a full stoop, but now with modern micro speedometers the true speed of a falcons stoop is measured much higher than ornithologists and falconers ever thought. One specific falcon was trained by a professional high speed sky diver and the bird was trained to dive along side of him. This falcon was recorded at 244mph in a stoop as she left her trainer in the dust, and he's sky diving at 190mph!! That's as fast as a 2 million dollar Bugatti super car!!
I've been having a great time with my new gear and I can honestly say that I nailed a lot more shots this year at he peregrine eyries due to the killer AF system. Shots just like this one. A high speed pass with a varied BG and the bird coming at me. A very difficult shot for any system!!
This male is always hauling a$$ as he comes into his nesting cove, so getting locked on to him is a real feat and you need to be panning with him pretty fast as he rips by. This fortunate frame is one of about 5 or 6 really nice frames from the same sequence and pass. He was probably doing 80mph in when I caught him and I got some of my best peregrine images ever from this pass with different BGs, but the ones I missed as turned on the afterburners and folded his wigs up are heartbreaking. They started turning a bit soft as I started loosing him. I guess that's what keeps us coming back:bg3:
D5---850mm---f5.6---ss1/2500th---IS0 1000---Handheld@10:45am---35% crop
Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.
David
Those thin long wings are made to cut through the air and when folded up in a dive (stoop), they are the fastest animals on the planet. There used to be a lot of controversy about the actual speed a falcon can atain in a full stoop, but now with modern micro speedometers the true speed of a falcons stoop is measured much higher than ornithologists and falconers ever thought. One specific falcon was trained by a professional high speed sky diver and the bird was trained to dive along side of him. This falcon was recorded at 244mph in a stoop as she left her trainer in the dust, and he's sky diving at 190mph!! That's as fast as a 2 million dollar Bugatti super car!!
I've been having a great time with my new gear and I can honestly say that I nailed a lot more shots this year at he peregrine eyries due to the killer AF system. Shots just like this one. A high speed pass with a varied BG and the bird coming at me. A very difficult shot for any system!!
This male is always hauling a$$ as he comes into his nesting cove, so getting locked on to him is a real feat and you need to be panning with him pretty fast as he rips by. This fortunate frame is one of about 5 or 6 really nice frames from the same sequence and pass. He was probably doing 80mph in when I caught him and I got some of my best peregrine images ever from this pass with different BGs, but the ones I missed as turned on the afterburners and folded his wigs up are heartbreaking. They started turning a bit soft as I started loosing him. I guess that's what keeps us coming back:bg3:
D5---850mm---f5.6---ss1/2500th---IS0 1000---Handheld@10:45am---35% crop
Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.
David