Vulture Landing

[Ikinaa]

During our holiday last week in Alsacia/France we also visited a castle near Kintzheim where birds of prey were held.
During a demonstration of about 45 minutes, I shot this picture of a vulture landing on the arm of one of the trainers...
The second picture is a crop of the head of the vulture.
During landing, the vulture spread all his feathers to slow down...
Pictures were taken with a 20D and a 28-135 at 1/400 and f/8

[weemannie]

Nice shot Ikinaa, thanks for sharing :)

[sixshot]

Nicely captured. The second one is so good, looks like its about to attack.

[marie]

wow


the second shot is as though you sphered it in ps http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif
those eyes http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif

did you 'duck' ?
http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif

[Ikinaa]

Thanks for the nice comments...

FYI : the second shot is in fact a 100% crop of the first...

Here I didn't have to duck, as the action was about 10 meters away...

In another shot of an eagle I'll post later, I had to duck, and even while ducking, the eagle touched my hair with it's wings...

[marie]

thanks
I was looking and looking at the first shot to see if it was 'sphered ' :lol:
and the bird looked pretty dangerous :shock: even at that distance:lol:

looks great close up

well , at least we know you have hair (still)

:confused:
I wouldn't fancy a vulture running it's claws through mine:mad:


:mrgreen:

[Rob612]

Great take, the crop is marvelous !

[ghosh]

Nice Ikina, Keep it up !
Ghosh

[lev]

Love the proportions, really shows the size of the bird against the man.

[Paul A]

Excellent shots!!

[CyberDyneSystems]

That's great!

[Ikinaa]

Thanks for the positive feedback (on an 3 month old thread... : that's my personal record ;) )

[ngannet]

Wow, that's one of the coolest things I've seen! Reminds me of something I've seen in pagan mythology or something. Those wild feathers and huge talons are amazing! Does anyone know the species of this bird?

[Ikinaa]

Wow, that's one of the coolest things I've seen! Reminds me of something I've seen in pagan mythology or something. Those wild feathers and huge talons are amazing! Does anyone know the species of this bird?

Thanks for the nice comments...

It's a black vulture or monk vulture (Aegypius Monachus) . Here (http://www.voleriedesaigles.com/anglais/anglais1024.html) is the web-site of the place where I took the picture.

[rick barclay]

Wow. He looks like a monster in that top one. Great shots.

[Desertraptor]

That's a scarey looking bird. I reckon it's prey would have a heart attack and die :o

I like the first shot best :)

[Suedezu]

Great shots! I envy you because it reminds me of a similar show that I witnessed 10 years ago but I dind't have a camera back then.:(

[jopfin]

Very cool............Joe