Banking Grey Ghost II

[arash_hazeghi]

Here is another shot of the male, males are a big challenge to capture they often tend to be very focused on ground targets with no eye contact , plumage is still winter, pale, soft and grey which offers little contrast to the marsh environment they roost in. You spend a whole day looking for them, then they suddenly appear on top of you like a real ghost in stealth mode, you have only one chance before they bank away and disappear in the horizon.



5D MKII 500 f/4 +1.4X TC f/5.6 1/1000sec ISO 800 HH. sw: DPP

Hope you like this one

[Harshad Barve]

Terrific pose , eye looks good and complimenting BG is killer ,
TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Whats there to complain about here Arash ;) Great eye contact, and love the dorsal view. The bird is separated very well from the BG, and the comp works well.

[Morkel Erasmus]

and this with a 5dmk2 AF system! truly well done, love the detail, pose and the matching colours in the BG.

[Brent Wellander]

Love the feather detail & BG... well done!

[arash_hazeghi]

and this with a 5dmk2 AF system! truly well done, love the detail, pose and the matching colours in the BG.

Thanks Morkel! 5D MKII AF is actually very good for flight shots, better then the newer cameras I had ;) glad they did not "improve" this one, thanks for nice comments again.

[christopher galeski]

nice pose ,great bg,nice feather detail,and a magic bird.thanks.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Arash, loved the eye contact and DOF here. Nice shot of a difficult one.

I had the opportunity to shoot one couple weeks back. it was at perfect distance. But my 40D missed focus on most shots. The few ones where it focussed fine had bad wing and head position. 40D AF for birds against busy BG is difficult....especially for a bird like Harrier which flies in such a pattern that makes it hard to maintain the central sensor on him. But I am newbie in BIF so lot of it is user error also, I know.

[arash_hazeghi]

Arash, loved the eye contact and DOF here. Nice shot of a difficult one.

I had the opportunity to shoot one couple weeks back. it was at perfect distance. But my 40D missed focus on most shots. The few ones where it focussed fine had bad wing and head position. 40D AF for birds against busy BG is difficult....especially for a bird like Harrier which flies in such a pattern that makes it hard to maintain the central sensor on him. But I am newbie in BIF so lot of it is user error also, I know.

Hi Kaustubh,

Thanks for nice comments :) I agree grey ghost is the AF's nightmare and 40/50D are not up for the job, they will miss the perfect shot many times and you will be frustrated. That's why I didn't even try these guys before :D mostly got sky BG and cruise position when I had the 40. Unfortunately I did not have much luck with 7D for these guys either, but the 5D MKII AF seems to be very good here, despite what is said about it on the internet. Credit goes to Al and Fabs here who told me to try it and I am more than happy that I did. I turned the 6 invisible assist points on and the camera hangs on to the bird as far as it doesn't drift too far from the center cluster. I also got many Avocets in flight and tact sharp which are tough to get too. will post some this week, stay tuned :)

Best

Arash

[Markus Jais]

A great flight shot. I like the wing pose and the yellow eye. Wonderful sharpness.

Markus

[Fabs Forns]

I love it! That bird I have only seen twice, and the first time just saw him go by.
Difficult to acquire focus with so little contrast, that 5d2 is a trooper :)

[paul leverington]

I love the shot Arash! I'm a big fan of the gray ghost but yet to have a great shot of them. This is superb especially with the bg color and environment. It would look so fine printed on canvas!

Paul