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An osprey fishing in spectacular super slow motion

Filmed at 800 frames a second, these shots took a week to capture.

Captured for the first time at a staggering 800 frames a second, this super slow motion footage reveals every minute detail of this magnificent bird of prey fishing. It took Cameraman Lindsay McCrae a solid week of patience and dedication to film these incredible shots. One of the biggest challenges was predicting precisely where the osprey was going to hit the water as the camera had to be trained on that exact spot. Here he explains in detail:-

鈥淵ou have to be well hidden, because the ospreys won鈥檛 tolerate you being there.. They want to know they are safe to land in water.

鈥淏ut it meant I couldn鈥檛 have an overhead view to check out the sky and had no idea if there was an osprey overhead. I had an assistant out on a hill watching through binoculars who was on the radio saying: 鈥楾here鈥檚 one in the air. Get ready.鈥

鈥淵ou really don鈥檛 know where the bird is going to hit the water because you can鈥檛 see the fish.
鈥淵ou just have to frame an image on a bit of water and hope the osprey hits that particular bit鈥 And because of the way the camera operates you just have to make a judgement call as to whether it is in the bag, as it takes time for the camera to process. And in that time, if you have missed it, the bird could dive again.

鈥淭here are big risks involved and it takes a lot of persistence. But if you get it right, you get spectacular footage.鈥

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2 minutes

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