Peregrin Falcons

I recently was able to take my camera(s) into a normaly retricted area - needing written permission from the property owner plus my normal security clearence under Official Secrets Act, so I cann't say were the pictures were taken.

The nest / roosting area is on a gantry about 20m up on the outside of a buildiing hence all the pictures are taken looking up at about 45 degrees which was not ideal. Niether was it an ideal background to picture the birds against.

Originaly there were 4 chicks but one was killed while learning to fly last weeked when the wind slammed it into side of building. The other three chicks are now flying so they are not around the nest area much now so there are now limited photo oppertunities.

In the feeding pictures the adult(s) can be differentiated from the chicks by the adult plumage and the yellow area around the eye and beak.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


First picture taken with K10D, 200mm + 1.5x adaptor, 400ASA, f5.6, 1/250 handheld. The others taken with K20D, Tamron 500mm mirror, 800ASA, f8, 1/250 to 1/400, tripod, fired with radio remote. All picures croped to around 1/9th frame area.

Having 1 camera on a tripod focus on a stationary bird, watching with the other camera and firing with the remote seemed to be the best approach as tripod mounted camera only needed to be touched for reframing.

Focusing was 'fun' with the 500mm mirror as its a manual focus lens and even creating a 'focus trap' (by putting camera into AF-S) required just the movement of a gnats wisker of the focus ring to turn the focus confirm indicator on/off. Focus distance on the lens was 30m.

Overall it was good fun to get out and shoot something completely different from my usual subject matter - but next time I'll take a deck-chair as there was lots of standing around doing nothing followed by 30 seconds of action.

Good luck
Bob

Some great captures, though some of the images do show the limitations of the lens. I am not certain, but there may be some fringing on some of the images. Some careful sharpening on some of the images would, I think, work really well. One technique I have been trying is to use layers and slightly excessive unsharpen mask and then experiment with the opaqueness of the top (duplicate) layer.

I really like all the shots though the 3rd one and the second to last one stand out for me, well done.

Thanks 'Beakynet'

I agree there is some fringing - mostly noticable on the edges of the ventelater slats in the background. I like your idea for sharpening I shall give it a go.

good luck

Bob