2011, Day 277 - Scavenge

I was thinking back through photos I've taken and there was a series of birds of prey that I quite enjoyed.  They were taken over three years ago at the Oregon Zoo while it was undergoing renovations.  During that time none of the raptors were on display but they were brought out be handlers every day at 11:30 so that people could see them.  It took a little digging through the archive to find the photographs I sought but as you can see it was a successful search.

I like this photo, the body language of the vulture is great and there was a nice dark backdrop that was easily enhanced to really highlight the bird.  One of the big surprises, apart from my vastly improved processing skills, is that this photo was taken on the now venerable Canon 1Ds Mark II at 800 ISO.  Now to normal people that probably means very little but for photo nerds like myself I have to admit to being impressed.  The noise is very well controlled and the image is tack sharp.  It's funny to think that since 2008 I've had a 1D Mark III, a 5D Mark II, a 1Ds Mark III and a 1D Mark IV; all have served me well and I still have the 1D Mark IV but I sold all the rest including my original 1Ds Mark II but I have since purchased another and I would be hard pressed to let it go for a second time.

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 70-200/f2.8L IS
200mm, f4, 1/500 sec @ 800 ISO