Swallow chicks

[Hawkman]

Here are a few barn swallow fledglings from this week. First a shot of poppa.

- Gene


http://www.pbase.com/gaocus/image/45888040/original.jpg


Hey kid, cough wheez, don't smoke, it will stunt you growth, cough.



http://cakonos.image.pbase.com/image/45916953/original.jpg
http://cakili.image.pbase.com/image/45889268/original.jpg




http://www.pbase.com/gaocus/image/45916954/original.jpg

[Owen]

Some of the best bird shots I've ever seen!

The first is absolutely amazingly perfectly taken!

[bfjr]

Really great Gene as usual :thumb
Share some tips will ya !!

[DoctorIt]

Really great Gene as usual
Share some tips will ya !!Yeah no kidding! Seriously, if don't have any shots in the audobon book or the like, i'd be shocked, you have bird shooting down! :thumb

[gsgary]

Stunning :clap

[behr655]

Photo #1----All I can say is...... WOW!


Bear

[Phil U.]

Suuweeeet! :clap :clap :clap

[MrBook2]

That first shot is stunning. What did you take that with?

--Aaron

[jwear]

they are all very good but the first one is :thumb :clap like the guy with his finger in his nose says -- book id shot :thumb

[Hawkman]

Really great Gene as usual :thumb
Share some tips will ya !!OK, you asked for it :rofl I can tell you how I shot them.

First finding these. I scouted out barn swallow nests in the area. These particular swallows had a nest at the bottom of an undeground stairwell - I knew because the adults kept flying down to feed them. I kept checking the area with late afternoon rounds until they were big enough to come out, and while scouting took a few shots of the adults, so they were used to having me around.

I shot in late afternoon sun, 6:30-7:30, sun behind my back. I had to get up close because to shoot the chicks level, I had to shoot through an old wide-gapped wire fence. Further back and the fence would have been in the frame. So I really couldn't fit the momma in feeding them. I had to use 68mm of extension tubes to get in that close (the 500/4L has a minimum focusing distance of 12ft, I was about 10ft). I prefer ISO 200, but the extension tubes robbed me of some light, so I used ISO 400. ISO > 400 isn't acceptable to me - the noise destroys too much detail.

I used a gitzo 1325 tripod with a Arca-swiss B1 balllhead + Wimberly sidekick, and only had the upper 1/2 of the legs extended, so I was crouched for about an hour.

I had to compensate the exposure by 1-1.5 stops with evaluative metering because the chick's very light bill rim highlights are easily blown (this from past experience). This gave me some needed shutter speed. I tried to balance between shutter speed for action (f4.5) and DOF for still shots (f8) and partially succeeded.

The adult photo was to my left and above on the fence post. I couldn't get the bird fully framed as it was too close. The sun was partially blocked (the shot is at 1/90s), which was good since direct sunlight is too reflective on these fellows and destroys detail (like on the shot below of the same bird I think). I also include a shot of one of the same fleglings on the fence to give you some perspective of how small these fellows were.

Cheers, Gene


http://www.pbase.com/gaocus/image/45923800/original.jpg



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[MuskyDude]

Gene, these are absolutely brilliant shots as usual. Thanks for sharing your techniques with us.



AJ

[bfjr]

Thanks Gene
appreciate your images and tips.
Will put them to use see what I can produce :thumb

[davev]

Great shots Gene. Thanks for the tips.

[ginger_55]

Nice shots, Gene, good hunting.

Fantastic!!!!

ginger

[Hawkman]

Thanks everyone!

Gene