Osprey

Spent last week in Finland photographing this beautiful Bird and what an experience seeing this cracking raptor at such close quarters. It was not easy because they are so fast at exploding from the surface once they have caught a fish. Once again used the trusty 1D MK11 which is a great camera for this kind of action.

Canon 1D MK11, 300mm Lens, F2.8, 1/4000, ISO 200

Danny

Glad you had a good time its a great place,nice low viewpoint on this shot,missing that horrible fence behind(if its still there?) and great light!
Did you have any problems with the resident male or did you still get plenty of visits from other birds?


Cheers

Craig
www.craigchurchill.co.uk

What a way to die.

Awesome stuff Danny, difficult to even imagine it any better...

Superb of the fish, let alone the subject! As Tim says, awesome.

David

Superb action shot Danny. Great detail of subject and catch. Also love the water spray.

Perhaps a smidgin tight if I'm super-picky, but awesome shot Dan - top drawer stuff mate

A very powerful and impressive viewpoint. Like it a lot.

Hi Danny,

Another great shot, whoooow!
A nice frontal catch what makes this picture very powerful

Greets

Great low POV and striking shot Danny!
Well done!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Nice shot Danny, agree with Andy A re the tightness.

Andy...

Andy's 'too tight' comment is interesting as looking through my keepers, I'm not sure I've got one shot of the full bird! For me, the secret here is throwing the background out of focus and that means the bird being too close for a 'standard' shot. My favourites were the real close-ups. Lovely shot but still don't like the sun!

Pete

Lovely image Danny I don't mind the tight crop as the point of the image is the action of the bird erupting form the water not the surroundings. Up in Scotland I didn't get any chances with head on shots, shame. I assume you don't get any problems with fishermen at this place in finland?

Cracking shot ...but not the best based on what we were looking at on the camera backs at the time
Tight crop is fine for me - the background really doesn't add anything to the images from here so it's all about the bird and the explosive action which needs really emphasising.

Mark

Superb... So very green with envy Danny..

Brett

Initially, I thought the bird was a bit low in the frame but looking again the water droplets fill the space above the osprey nicely.

Tempted to go here but it is a bit like the bears - so much really good stuff already done by others! Always images to be got at such places I suppose . . . . .

Good stuff, cheers,
Chris

Hello Chris

I agree to a certian extent about these places but I believe there is always scope for any subject and any location you just have to put your own stamp on it. For me personally I work very hard on subjects close to home like my Fox, Pine Marten and Gannet stuff I have done this year these were very hard and time consuming projects and although I was very pleased with the results it was only a small selection in the end, so places like the Osprey location give me so much material to work with. I hear a lot of photographers say the same thing like I won't go there because it has been done to death which if we all had that view then we wouldn't do anything I loved this place it was amazing to see the Ospreys dive in the water so close to the hide and everytime Pete or Mark woke me up with the words Osprey is coming it was very exciting I also got a cracking view of a wild lynx that walked straight past us and photographed a new species in the form of a Racoon Dog which I will post later. Regarding the tightness I disagree but then I usually do with Andy A and as for the Sun being out, Pete you have lived in Scotland for too long

Danny

Hello Danny.

Outstanding this is the best Osprey image I have seen by far.

Dont really understand the comment about the sun on this one, as its the gorgeous light that really gives this its impact.

The crop works fine for me as this image is all about impact.

I would like to have seen more around the bird, but that's just my style of photography talking, this is one hell of and image Danny, the colours, the frozen droplets, the expressions on both of the subjects, it just all comes together, I'm one jealous puppy.

Dani

Wonderful! Especially the fish! Colours are really vibrant.

hi Danny - I'm going to go against most of the opinions on this one and say for me this image would have been even more powerful with a much tighter crop in camera - hard images to get, and you've done exceptionally well with this shot - could you have got the same shot with your 500mm?

cheers

Colin

Nice Danny, very nice.

thanks

Kevin