Birds Of Prey

[GRAHAMJ]

Back earlier in the month...when the snow was not here I went off to the Czech Republic for a Bird of Prey Wksp.........looking no hoping for snow! Spent an enjoyable 3 days watching and photographing said raptors in their natural surrounds. All of the birds were captive and flown by professional falconers without jessies.

I had picked up a Panny 35-100 at Dixons at Gatwick, so that got a real good test!

Here are some of the shots and more in my gallery.



Common Buzzard, with the 75-300



Steppe Eagle



Golden Eagle



Eagle Owl



Peregrine Falcon.......



Long eared owl

[Gig Binder]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Great pics of the raptors, especially the eagle owl & nice framing of the long eared owl, both look natural as opposed to captive.
Gig

[Zuiko]

Re: Birds Of Prey

I can see you had a great trip, Graham and you have an excellent set of pictures in your gallery to prove it! File sizes are a little small to make critical judgement but the E-M5 seems to have coped rather well with birds in flight. How did you find it in use for these subjects and do you have any tips on technique?

[Imageryone]

Re: Birds Of Prey

With images like these it was well worth the trip .......

[birdboy]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Great set of memories for you Graham. If I had to pick a fav it would be the Eagle owl.

I found these particularly interesting because it seems that you did not need the reach of the 300mm end of the 75-300mm. For Xmas my son brought me a photography workshop and I have chosen the Countrywide Falconary near Sevenoaks in April so your pics are being studied my me for settings.

Thanks for sharing
John

[Fearless Leader]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Brilliant. Is that a dead Jay it has caught?

[Greytop]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Superb images Graham, the birds are set wonderfully by the snowy background.
I'm also really pleased with my 35-100, it's great to have a fast high quality zoom over this range.

[gregles]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Lovely shots Graham the birds look great against the snow

Just wondering - were you nervous at all when they were flying the eagles?

Greg

[GRAHAMJ]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Thanks for the reply s, yes it was very enjoyable. Sorry about having taking so long to reply.

I went to the same place in November to catch the birds in an autumn setting and it was much harder to get the EM5 to lock on then. In the end it was manual focus and wait for the bird to fly through the zone. This time it was easier....just!

With the 35-100 I used spot metering and c-af at 5 fps. We were advised by the pro to use the lower frame rate, to sort of give the auto focus time to catch up so to speak.
I had to do a lot of processing to the WB and exposure as they do not fly in a straight line most of the time and using spot sometimes picked up on the sky and snow!

I had intended to use the m75-300 to see how it compared to my Panny100-300, but after picking up the 35-100 that went out of the window, and were I did try it the conditions were not that great and it was very hit and miss with the background. I had started were I left off in November with manual focusing and letting the subject fly through the zone,. The golden eagle though was with the spot and caf. I have put another shot with a larger file size below.






The falconer most of the time stood behind us to enable us to get them head on....they did come very close, like wing hitting head close, but they always went to the glove with the meat in!

These shots were a few of what was taken, more miss than hit, there are more in my Smugmug site.

[Wee man]

Re: Birds Of Prey

Great shots looks like you had a good time The oOwl shots for me really like the Eagle Owl shot.