Raptor Portraits

The Ojai Raptor Center had their fall open house on November 10.  To get some experience with my new Canon 5D3, I paired it with my 100-400mm telephoto zoom and went to the open house.  Below are some of the images shot during that visit.

Lucy (Western Screech-Owl)

Riley (Eastern Screech-Owl)

Kramer (Swainson's Hawk)

Newton (Great Horned Owl)

Shytan (Golden Eagle)

Hitch (Bald Eagle)

Lucky (Red-shouldered Hawk)

Avalon (juvenile Bald Eagle)

Kira (American Kestrel)

Spooky (Barred Owl)

Canon 5D Mark III

When we travel I like to have a second camera body.  This gives me a backup if I have a problem with my primary camera.  It also allows me to have two cameras set up with different lenses (e.g. wide angle zoom and a telephoto) when I might need to quickly switch.  Recently my primary camera was the Canon 7D and its backup was my old Canon Rebel XTi.  I just upgraded my primary camera to a Canon 5D Mark III.  The 7D will become the backup/alternate.  I've only been able to shoot a few test images around the yard, but from this small sample, I think I'm really going to like this camera!

These are some of the sample images.  Many of these are heavily cropped.  These were all shot with my 400mm telephoto lens mounted.