Just to say Thanks

[John Harper]

Hi There

Well as those of you who follow my posts on OPF know, most of my subjects are Birds in Flight taken at the Hawk Conservancy in Hampshire in the UK.

I have only been shooting birds since April of last year, but as i have got better equipment my success rate has gone up, and a big help and source of inspiration has been all the comments and advice I have received here on OPF.

The Hawk Conservancy held a Photographic Competition last year and you could enter 2 pictures in each of the categories each month. It ran for the whole of 2007 and the results were announced yesterday.

I am happy to report that I won 3 of the sections and came 2nd in the others, and had the vote for best overall picture. I was "somewhat pleased" and a little amazed to put it midly.

So I wanted to say a big thank you to all at OPF for the help support and encouragement you have given me last year, I will list some names and I am bound to forget someone, but i am really grateful to everyone at this wonderful resource, but especially

Asher, Nicolas, Mike, Don, Bart Van, John Nevil, Ray, Cem, Janet , Rachel, and others too numerous to mention.

Best Wishes


John Harper

 

[janet Smith]

Wonderful News!!

I am happy to report that I won 3 of the sections and came 2nd in the others, and had the vote for best overall picture. I was "somewhat pleased" and a little amazed to put it midly

Hi John, what fantastic news, I have watched the progression in your work and have found it inspirational, you really derserve this accolade, I'm absolutely thrilled for you. Could you post the winning shots? Once again, well done you!!

 

[John Harper]

Winning Shots

Hi John, what fantastic news, I have watched the progression in your work and have found it inspirational, you really derserve this accolade, I'm absolutely thrilled for you. Could you post the winning shots? Once again, well done you!!

Hi Janet

The winning shots are posted below

Portrait Section - Goose - Juvenile Bateluer Eagle

Flora & Fauna Section - Peregrine in Meadow

Working Relationship Section - Gareth & Barn Owls

I was runner up in the other 2 sections of Action & In the Wild

The overall winner was the Peregrine in the Meadow - Winner of Flora & Fauna section

John

 

[janet Smith]

The overall winner was the Peregrine in the Meadow - Winner of Flora & Fauna section

Hi John

Thanks for posting these, my favourites are the first two...... the Bateluer Eagle shot is wonderful, s/he is looking at you with such intensity, fabulous detail in the feathers and such a beautiful amber colour, perfection, what aperture did you use?

The Peregrine Falcon shot is also tremendous, love the shallow depth of field, what aperture did you use for this one? You've really caught the grace of this beautiful bird, no surprise it was the deserved overall winner.

I'm not too far away from Thorpe Perrow Arboretum where they also have a Falconry centre, you've inspired me to pay them a visit, once I've finished wading through shots of snow covered Rannoch Moor & Glencoe, seems to be taking forever....

Thank you for sharing and thanks for the inspiration.

 

[John Harper]

Hi John

Thanks for posting these, my favourites are the first two...... the Bateluer Eagle shot is wonderful, s/he is looking at you with such intensity, fabulous detail in the feathers and such a beautiful amber colour, perfection, what aperture did you use?

Hi Janet

The Bateluer Eagle was shot with my 500mm F4 @ F5.6 the lens was at pretty much minimum focus distance of around 4.5 meters and I was at a fairly borderline 1/160th of a second on the shutter speed.
Thank goodness for IS and the fact he kept still. I could have done with more depth of field but i did get his eyes sharp, and the 500mm throws the background right out of focus anyway.

The Peregrine Falcon shot is also tremendous, love the shallow depth of field, what aperture did you use for this one? You've really caught the grace of this beautiful bird, no surprise it was the deserved overall winner.

The Peregrine shot had plenty of light but i wanted the fastest shutter speed I could get to try and get a sharp shot of him as he did a high speed pass in front of the meadow. I was at 1/5000 @ F4 with ISO at 800 again wide open the 500mm just sends the background to a lovely out of focus blur

I'm not too far away from Thorpe Perrow Arboretum where they also have a Falconry centre, you've inspired me to pay them a visit, once I've finished wading through shots of snow covered Rannoch Moor & Glencoe, seems to be taking forever....

Thank you for sharing and thanks for the inspiration.

Well i wish you luck you might even get bitten by the "Bird Photography Bug" like i did!


John

 

[janet Smith]

Well i wish you luck you might even get bitten by the "Bird Photography Bug" like i did!

I think it's a distinct possibility John, and it gives me the perfect reason (excuse) to buy yet more equipment, thanks for all the info, very interesting, I'll post any more bird results that I may get, but it won't be for a few weeks yet, still merging snowy panoramas, managing much better now....

 

[Georg R. Baumann]

Wonderful John! Congratulation, and what a nice portrait you shot there in deed.

 

[nicolas claris]

One word only: but 2 times

bravo bravo!

 

[Ron Morse]

Congratulations.

I like them all but the I can't stop looking at the eagle.

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Congratulations

Well deserved - magnificent images - the light and color are amazing!

 

[Jeff Donovan]

John, great pictures. I can see why the photo of the Peregrine won. As you said, the eyes are tack sharp and the framing of the photo is perfect. The bird has plenty of space to move to and I find myself asking what he/she is after!

I also got bitten by the bird bug this past summer. I was out jogging and a very large red-tailed hawk was perched on the fence of the track I was running on. I finished my run and dashed home to grab my camera. Luckily she was still there when I got back:

Not the best shot in the world, but it certainly got me interested in finding more birds of prey. Turns out there are a lot of red-tails in my area of suburban Boston, many more than there were when I was a child growing up here.

I also recently read that Massachusetts now has between 40 and 60 nesting pairs of bald eagles. I'm going to try to track them down this spring and summer, as well as get some better, clearer shots of the hawks. I envy you having a conservancy so close to you!

 

[Michael Fontana]

Congrats, John

I'm not a birdy, but like the Great Grey Owl on the fixed 1 D-3.