Nest buillding time.

[Karl Egressy]

I took this shot yesterday.
It is not the sharpest but might be exceptable.
I had some comments lately regarding the sharpness of the head of my images posted here.
You were right.
Although the focus point was always on the head of those shots,
I found out that my camera/lens combo was front focusing by eight points as per FoCal 1.8 Pro.
I fixed it now.
Thanks for your comments.

Canon 500 f4.0 + 1.4
Canon 1D MIV
ISO 800
1/1600 s
f8.0

[Jason Lee]

Nice capture! I think anyone who can capture a Tree Swallow inflight deserves congratulated. Were you tracking it using AI Servo, or pre-focused manually on an assumed flight path. My Canon 7D's auto focus will hunt in AI Servo mode trying to track a subject with a busy background or foreground making a shot like this even harder. So again great job.

[David Salem]

Nice pose with this swallow bringing in nesting material. Exposed well and a nice colored BG. Next time try trading f8 for a higher ss. I like 1/2500 minimum for these little speedsters. Well done.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice pose, these guys are tough to get in flight, your shutter speed fell a bit short here and the head is a bit soft as a result of the slow shutter speed but I like the nesting material.

[vishaljadhav]

i like the image for the colors all around in the BG and the bird, the nest material does add interest to the image,

You have already said its not the sharpest and the SS may be the key here.

i like the composition of the image too .

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent flight. Love the colors, especially on the head,nice HA,catch light and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Sweet BG. Ditto what Arash said, but you did well to keep this fella in the viewfinder! I'm glad you were able to sort out your focus issues...

[dankearl]

I think it is an amazing shot, Karl.
As Daniel said, just getting them in the finder is tough.
Nice angle in the frame also.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the nesting material, composition and BG. Look forward to seeing more if you can get him again. Nice image Karl.

[Amy Kay]

I agree that it isn't the sharpest but the great BG and nesting material adds a lot to this. Nice capture Karl.