Cleared for Landing

[Lance Peters]

This guy surprised me - flew straight towards me an landed about 10 feet away (well inside my minimum focussing distance) got a few frames off as he did.
Sure dot want to loose your subject in the frame when working at 800mm, one of the reasons I really like the zoom on the sigmonster - zooming out allows you to find the subject much easier and then zoom back in
These guys are ususally a lot more skittish in my part of the world.

D3S
Sigmonster @800mm
F5.6
1/640TH
-2.7EV
1000 ISO
Aperture Priority
Tripod
Sitting in mud at creek mouth.

Cropped for composition and sharpened.
Comments welcome as always :)

[Ken Lassman]

Really like this Lance..great wing position, eye contact and sharp detail...tough shot and you really nailed it...you should get surprised more often ;)

[John Platt]

Very nice Lance, I see the -2.7 EV and realize I need some practice, I would have been way off! Good exposure under a difficult circumstance.

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image Lance , love the incoming pose and BG here
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent Lance, well done

[Michael Hogan]

Lance,

Great image, these birds are not that skittish around here but they are still very difficult to photograph. I am going to be a littke picky and the green in the top BG I find a little (and I mean a little) distracting - an even coloured BG would have been nicer, but we must shoot with what we are given

TFS

Michael

[VinceRossi]

Lance I am amazed at the lack of noise at such a distance and higher ISO. Nice picture.

[Alfred Forns]

Good tracking for a bird coming at you, hardest for the AF !! Neat bird and I think it would have landed without clearance any way :)

[Troy Lim]

Excellent shot Lance...like the slight head turn.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Lance, great angle and nice exposure grabbing detail in all areas. Agree about not easy getting the focus when they are flying right at you.
Vince, For the D3s 1000 ISO is not a high number....

[Harold Davis]

head on with the monster! great job! that will be my next big expenditure. i want that lens!!!

[Lance Peters]

Thanks for the kind words everyone :)

[Mark Young]

Congrats on the great angle! These birds fly in really fast when landing! The angle looks really nice here, and I like the pose you've captured the bird in.