Henry Eating the Beef Bits

[Anne Hornsby]

Henry, European kestrel, had just landed on my glove and taken the beefy bits I’d placed there.  I was holding my point-and-shoot in my other hand and this is the only 1 of 6 shots that turned out sharp.   I couldn’t capture him in motion.

Canon power shot G7,  f 4.5,  1.1250,  ISO 125

[ElinL]

Great shot Anne, impressive that you managed to get it with the powershot. Is Henry trained for hunting ?

[Anne Hornsby]

Thanks. Elin.   I’ve gotten some amazing shots with my little G7.   This one was just luck because most of the time my arm would shake when he landed.    Kestrels (falcon family) are natural hunters.   So what Scott was training them to do was fly to gloves with beefy bits, with people standing from 30 to 100 yards apart.    Scott is a British fellow who owns Skywing Falconery in Algondales, Spain; he takes wonderful care of his birds, and organizes conservation and educational projects for certain species.

[bucweeet]

Really nice shot Anne!

Just the post behind Henry and the bare arm are minor distractions.

[Anne Hornsby]

Thanks, Paul.    The original shot has a lot of my arm .  🙂      I’ll crop out the rest plus the post.   Good ideas.

[beth]

excellent shot, the hand coming into the photo from that pov and distance actually looks like a view you’d have in a video game.

[Anne Hornsby]

Thanks, Beth.  Interesting observation about the video game.   I’m fascinated by graphical images.

[Tersha]

Really good shot Anne, interesting PoV Anne, and great detail.

[Anne Hornsby]

Thanks, Diane!

[JasenkaG]

Great shot, I bet it’s really hard to capture ones like this!

I find the background a bit distracting but other than that I wouldn’t change anything.

[Greg]

Beautiful shot. I’m with Jasenka, could the mountain background be blurred to make Henry pop off the page a bit?

 

[Frank]

Great you got such a clear, close-up shot handheld.  Assuming you are good with juggling while holding a wild bird, maybe next time raise your arm up a bit, hunch down, or maybe just move so the the head is against the clear sky, not  the hill, to separate subject from cluttered background.

Google Falconry or Eagles of Mongolia:

[Erik Fransman]

Cool shot Anne. I would crop a little closer and burn the BG and glove.

[Falxy]

Hi Anne…………yeah i like the premise :)…………..but just looks like a very ordinary shot and presented here as!

agree with cropping on the arm……but its the background.

Would like to see a b&w version

[Anne Hornsby]

 

 

Thanks, folks.   The ideas about blurring the background are good ones.  I will try that.  Erik. I really like your close crop.  Frank, good idea, I would love to go to Mongolia for the eagle hunting.

Falxy/Duncan –  I think what you’re saying is that this is really a “snapshot.”    I agree, because I’d never worked with birds of prey like this before, so this image really is an accidental image of sorts.   The next time I would have some ideas about how to really craft an image – though who knows if I’d be able to pull it off because everything happens so quickly.

 

[Mistyisle]

Very interesting thread, Anne, and a very nice detailed shot of a striking bird.  Thanks for sharing!

[Author]

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