Lanner Falcon - Head on

[John Harper]

Hi There

Ventured a little further afield on Monday this week took a trip to the National Bird of Prey Centre here in the UK. It was a 2 hour drive from my home but well worth the trip. they have 3 flying displays along a similar format to HCT. Had 1.2.3 Firmware loaded and wanted to try and get some shots against darker backgrounds and grass etc as I had found the camera would struggle in these conditions to track in AI Servo with 1.1.3.

Trying for more portrait style flying shots in the style of my earlier Barn Owl post... This was the 1st time I had nailed a shot of a Lanner Falcon head on at a close distance.

John

EOS 1DMKIII (1.2.3)
EF 500 F4L
ISO 1600
1/1250 @ F4

[Dan Walker]

Looks like the firmware works. head is SHARP!!! Wonder what it would look like with the jesses cloned out. Nice image.

Dan

[John Harper]

Looks like the firmware works. head is SHARP!!! Wonder what it would look like with the jesses cloned out. Nice image.

Dan

Hi Dan

Is this more like it?

John

[Lana Hays]

John
I really do like the "in your face" image here and that beautiful green BG. Normally I don't mind or even notice the jesses but in this one.....I guess because it's so close and powerful they are a distraction. Cloning them out makes it better. I'm not sure how much....if any.....you cropped but you could also try a pano of the head and wings which would crop out most of the jesses. Well done.

[Juan Aragonés]

John I do not comment as much as I would like on this forum, mostly due to the lack of time, but I follow your posts on this forum (and many others posts here too ;) in fact, I have a lot of captive bird images that I would love to post but have to found more time to do it :() and I just wanted to say that your work with all those birds of prey is absolutely fantastic. Birds in flight are my favourite subject. I do a lot of flights and by no way is easy to get images of the quality of yours. A captive peregrine is more easy to photograph than a wild one but just due to a single reason: the wild one is more shy and more difficult to get close. Period. From the artistic point of view, IMO the most important in photography, and the technical point of view, to get a quality image of a captive bird is as much difficult as to get one of a wild bird and, in some cases, is even more difficult. The speed flight of a captive bird of prey is the same of a wild one and you are doing and excellent job with those birds, your technical skill is amazing, and your results have a very high artistic quality, a real pleasure for the eyes :)
I sincerely apologize for do not comment more on many others of your images because I enjoy them a lot :o
Excellent image and keep them coming
Juan

[John Harper]

Juan

Thank you for the kind words, and I am pleased that you enjoy my posts and rest assured I will continue to post my better efforts.

I appreciate that by numbers of posts Captive Shots are very much the poor relation to the Wild & Free shots, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for photographers who can get shots of birds in the wild....

Captive does however give me more of a chance to practice my technique on birds in flight and I certainly feel my photography has improved because of it, together with the valuable feedback this and other sites have given me.

Flight shots is a challenging area to get good quality shots especially swinging around large lenses handheld....but I just enjoy the challenge...and hopefully by posting shots I can inspire others to do the same and with luck get as much enjoyment out of this type of photography as I do.

John

[Juan Aragonés]

Juan

I appreciate that by numbers of posts Captive Shots are very much the poor relation ...

Captive does however ...

Flight shots is a...

John

John I totally agree with you ;)

[Dan Walker]

John, looks really good. Ditto to what juan said, you have fome excellent raptor images here.

Dan

[Jay Tan]

Great image with a lot of impact. Agree on cloning out the jesses.

[Gus Cobos]

Fantastic repost John. A very powerfull capture indeed. I like it very much...congrats...:)