Falcon coming to lure

[Bob Reimer]

Last weekend (28 Dec 2007) our Natural History Group field trip was out to an area north west of Al Ain that has been dubbed "Dhub Valley" for its (former) population of spiny tailed lizards. (Dhub is the Arabic name for these lizards.) One of our former members did his PhD thesis documenting the behaviour of the dhub in this valley. Unfortunately, with the drop in the water table over the last years, there is no vegetation and consequently, no dhub.

But one of our members did bring his falcons along since the area is popular as a falcon training area. The gravel plain makes it easy to see the birds if the trainers need to give chase in their Land Cruisers. There were at least 4 other groups of locals out training.

Here I was working on my following and autofocus technique as one of the falcons was being exercised swooping towards the lure for its eventual reward of a pigeon. The background isn't the greatest with the gravel plain in the foreground and sabkha (salt flats) in the background rather than dunes.

I liked this frame because of the shadow of the bird on the plain showing how low it was as it swooped towards the lure. I went for the vertical magazine cover crop to get rid of the dead tire just left of the head. I've included a thumbnail of the full frame in the lower right so you can see what I had to work with. Suggestions?

Warm regards,
Bob

Photo info:
Nikon D200, 80-400 VR at 300mm, ISO 400, AF-C, Ch, Aperture priority, f/11, 1/640 sec, 0EV, handheld

[Lana Hays]

Welcome, Bob
Dhub Valley sounds like a wonderful place for falcon training. I think the light colors work very well to show off the dark falcon. The insert of the original shows a light colored area where the falcon is flying. Did you change that to blend in with the rest of the sand? If so....you did an excellent job. I like the idea of a vertical but I think you need more room in front of the bird and less behind to give him the appearance of room to fly. You could have cloned out the tire.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bob Love the idea of a vertical !!!! Would have to pan like a demon

I also wish for more room in front of the bird Does look like great area to photograph !!!!

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Bob,
Based on what you started with and what you said you were trying to do, I think the image you ended up with meets your goals.

If I had been there with the same equipment, my settings would have been something like 400mm, F5.6, 1/2500, ISO 400, and manual exposure mode. I would have been using the center AF point only in continuous AF mode. Manual mode would have allowed me to get good exposures even with changing bgs. F5.6 should have given enough DOF to get the bird sharp with a D200 (1.5 mag factor I think) and it allows faster ss, 1/2500 would yield sharp images much more consistentantly than 1/640, 400mm would have produced larger in the frame subject. Hopefully this will help if you get to do it again.

[Bob Reimer]

Thanks for the tips, Jim. I was going for the looser focal length as the bird was coming pretty close to me at times and It also allowed me some shots of the trainer and lure as she actually flew through that area. If I want to try again, basically it's just a matter of getting in touch with the falconer as he's out most nights. I'll try the longer focal length next time.

Lana ... not sure what happened on the thumbnail. For some reason the area behind the bird turned grey. The plain was in fact a fairly uniform colour and I didn't do any work on the crop. The thumbnail was more to illustrate what I had to work with compositionally rather than colour. Next time I get out I'll have to watch for the tires or bury them ;) My photoshop skills are pretty weak. I'm going to have to work through Robert's APATS ...

Al, lots of fun photographing out here, especially during the migrations as we're on two flyways and get African, Asian and European birds.

Thanks all for the comments.

Warm regards,
Bob