Some birds of prey

Hi,

after seeing a few nature shots as kindly posted by Bittern I thought I would upload a few from a birds of prey shoot which I was involved in at Paxton house down in the Scottish Borders.

The event was headed by Laurie Campbell a Professional wildlife photographer who is a regular contributor to many of the well known photography magazines and I'm sure for the National Geographic as well.

The photographs shown are all of captive birds. You will be able to see jesses in one or two of the shots although the handlers did pretty well in keeping them hidden.


Post edited, please see pictures further down thread

Cheers

Toto

My apologies,

something obviously wrong there,

I'll try again.

toto

Here we go again,

I think I have overcome the technical difficulties.



another



and one more of this chap,



and we move on to the next big boy,



I have a few of him as he was very obliging so if it gets a bit samey, feel free to switch off.



and another



and another,



and more,



and more,



and another,



and then one of this wee chap,



My apologies, I have not managed to get either the American Grey or Native Red squirrel shots to upload. I'll maybe try again later as they were saved as a different file type. If I can locate the original files I'll update.

Hope the above was of interest.

cheers

toto

Excellent pics Toto. Will put some up in a minute, have to change browser first.

Changed browser so here goes:

Hi Bittern,

Amazing, that's the kind of shots I'd love to take. Very difficult indeed as you have to know where to locate them. Then when you do, trying to set up without spooking them and scaring them away.

From what I believe its best to catch them before the heat of the day as they are less active then. I imagine you'll know better than I on that one. Is it a dedicated macro lens that you use for these shots.

I have a Cannon 105mm prime macro lens but find it very difficult to use. Do you use flash at all as again I believe that this can help if a little fill flash is used.

I'd love to see more so fire away. Excellent stuff.

Cheers

Toto

No toto, I was using the Sigma 70/300 on my Nikon 3100 and standing about 40 yards away from them. We were lucky, there were lots of them around so if we missed one there were others to have a go at. In fact on the blue beast I took almost 30 shots before it nipped off.

Wow,

40 yards Away. I have the Cannon 75 - 300 mm lens and it is my go everywhere lens. It was a kit lens that I got with my Cannon 40D prior to buying the 7D. It's a great lens.

I have a couple of Sigma lenses and have found them to be very good. It's very rarely that I buy Cannon lenses anymore as the difference in price is not reflected in the quality difference.

I'll hopefully be out snapping over the coming weeks so if I get anything of any worth, I'll post it up.

Cheers

Toto.

[hijack mode on] I got preyed on by some birds today, quite enjoyed it



After photographing them and many other dancers at Wimborne Folk Festival on Saturday and Sunday, these beauties are part of Morena, a Slovak team I've taken pics of at quite a few festivals over the last few years.

Tom, can you go back & delete those first set of duplicate photos of your shed from the gallery & then edit your first post?  This will save a lot of memory for the forum.

Hi Sol,

My apologies …… Job done. Cheers.

Mike, now these birds are far more interesting ………. Did you get invited back to their nest ?

Cheers

Toto

Hi Toto. I got my measurements a bit mixed up earlier. Call it a 'senior' moment. I was about 4 or 5 ft away.  It would need to have been a blooming good lens to take that clear a shot from 45 yrds. As I say, I'm old. The brain does tricks on me sometimes.

Hi Bittern,

No problems, I know the feeling. Still good from 4 or 5 feet. I wouldn't imagine you would get much closer than that. Again maybe early in the morning whilst they are still relatively inactive. Great shots anyway.

I like to see the close ups of bugs eyes as they look I fascinating .

I admire anyone with the skill and patience to capture these shots. Well done.

Cheers

Toto

I couldn't get any closer in this instance Toto, otherwise I would have been in the lake.

Ahhhh, you need to invest in a pair of waders

Cheers

Toto

Hi Toto,
Herewith some little beasties I took today in my local woods.

Spotted Longhorn Beetle.



Redllegged Shield Bug (nymph in final instar)



Grypocoris stysi (No English name)



Hope you like them. No. 1 is about 18 - 20mm long, No. 2 about 10mm diameter and No. 3 about 10mm long.

Taken with Nikon D3100 with 18/55 lens. Camera set on Macro.

Hi Bittern,

I wouldn't fancy any of the above floating around in my coffee.

Very well taken, nice and sharp. You must have a keen eye to spot them in the first place. I suppose once you start to get used to photographing them and know their habitat, finding them will become a bit easier.

A very interesting genre of photography as their is such a variance of creatures with a mix of camouflaged and vivid colour schemes.

I go out one night a week with a colleague from my work to do some photography in order to break the boredom of working away. Up until now it's mainly been wildlife ( birds ) with some landscapes which I'm not the best at, but next weeks foray is down to a British Legion garden of remembrance where there are flowers etc so I might get some bugs whilst I'm there.

I have a Sigma 105 mm f 2.8 prime macro lens so let's see if I can do it justice.

I shall report back. Thanks again for posting as I like to see other peoples photo's. It can give you idea's.

Cheers for now.

Toto

Thanks Toto.
Any hedgerow or roadside verge can produce multitudes of little beasties. It's just a case of looking. Some are so conspicuous you can't help but see them, the Cardinal Beetle is a typical example. It's bright red (warns birds that it doesn't taste nice) and really shows up against the green of the foliage. Good hunting anyway.

Ok, they may not be birds nor insects, but you did mention landscapes. Here is a few of my pics..










Cheers, Gary.

Really nice ones Gary. I like the modern looking bridge and the old trestle bridge. I bet there are plenty of bugs and creepy crawlies around that one.

Great stuff there Gary.:thumbs Thanks for sharing.