The bird show people asked for someone with a good camera to volunteer, so of course I did. They positioned me in the exact right place to get the owl, but of course it was up to me to actually capture the shot. The presenter helpfully put up her hand and told me to focus on it, and then they unleashed the owl.

I got several pictures of the owl as it sped towards me, and of course this is the biggest and best. If you ever get this opportunity yourself, the thing to do is put your camera into continuous shooting mode, hold down the shutter and make sure your camera's aimed properly.

By an interesting coincidence, Rick Lee gave a D300 tip telling his fellow owners to use this technique with people shots. He is right, and the photo I show here demonstrates that even with slower cameras like my ancient Canon EOS D30 (over five years old!) you can still do the same thing. Not as well as the D300 - and the D300 has much better autofocus so I would have had much sharper pictures with one - but sometimes you can get lucky even with an ancient camera like my own.

I am nonetheless planning to get a D300 as soon as I can afford one, but I thought it would be good to point out that this technique is useful even with ancient digital SLRs like my first generation D30.

D

Filed under: D30, Canon, bird, flight, national aviary, and pittsburgh

Of course he's just doing it to impress the girls, but he gets big props for building the flying machine himself, and having the guts to try it out personally.

Soaring and gliding at up to 185mph, Rossy may have the ultimate view up in the sky ... but he can't enjoy it - "I am so concentrated, I don't really enjoy the view".

He plans to cross the English Channel in his wings when they are further developed.

Filed under: personal flight, jet, and rocket

The GEN H-4 Personal helicopter brings the old sci-fi idea of a individualized jetpack to life.

We look forward to testing on May 25th.

Amazingly enough, even before this test flight, the helicopter is on sale for the relatively modest (by aviation standards) price of $58,250. They have sold six units, two here in the USA.

With a top speed of 31mph, I'm not sure how useful this thing is, but I salute the brave and slightly masochistic people who decide to purchase it.

Filed under: helicopter, personal, and flight