Falcon arriving
A slight surprise when coming in from behind!
Kids being given a first-hand introduction to birds of prey, under close supervision. They absolutely loved ...
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A slight surprise when coming in from behind!
Kids being given a first-hand introduction to birds of prey, under close supervision. They absolutely loved the experience.
Poing Wildpark, near Munich.
Read less
Kids being given a first-hand introduction to birds of prey, under close supervision. They absolutely loved the experience.
Poing Wildpark, near Munich.
Read less
Oct, 2016Views
1550
Likes
Awards
Top Shot Award
Winner in Candid Kids - no posed, fake backdrops, photoshop Photo Challenge
Top Choice
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Superior Skill
Emotions
Happy
Top Ranks
Top 30 rank
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 30 rankTop 30 rank week 1
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
Poing Wildlife park, about 20km northeast of Munich, GermanyTime
Early afternoonLighting
A bright summer's day, in August. The main thing for this shot was to make sure the sun lit up the girl's face well.Equipment
Canon EOS 70D with 75-300mm lens. Hand-held. I was in the crowd on the edge of the arena and so I used nearly full zoom for this shot.Inspiration
I enjoy taking shots of birds of prey, but this was the first occasion that I had visited the Birds of Prey show at Poing Wildlife park. It was a great feature to have the handler introducing young kids to handling the birds and this young girl certainly had the crowd in raptures. A falcon was used so that it was not one of the larger birds that would have been difficult for the youngsters to handle.Editing
Only a bit of cropping to bring the girl and the bird closer to full-frame.In my camera bag
This Canon EOS 70D with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses. I am also starting to experiment with a 2x converter to increase the zoom. I sometimes use a monopod, but generally not for bird shots as they are usually moving too fast, and at varying heights of course.Feedback
Because the birds move very quickly and you have to try to follow them with the camera while also using high zoom, it is best to use a very fast shutter speed, in this case 1/4000. That would not have been so necessary for this particular shot, as the bird is just landing on the glove and is facing the camera, but the settings need to be suitable for when the bird is flying around and you are trying to get shots of it in flight. Depending on the brightness of the day, it is then usually necessary to use quite a high ISO setting, in this case 2000 even on a very bright day, to be able to get the lighting correct.
