An osprey fishing in spectacular super slow motion

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:-

“You have to be well hidden, because the ospreys won’t tolerate you being there.. They want to know they are safe to land in water.

“But it meant I couldn’t 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: ‘There’s one in the air. Get ready.’

“You really don’t know where the bird is going to hit the water because you can’t see the fish.
“You just have to frame an image on a bit of water and hope the osprey hits that particular bit… 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.

“There are big risks involved and it takes a lot of persistence. But if you get it right, you get spectacular footage.”