Martins not talking.

[John Robinson]

House Martins
These two birds gathereing nest mud refused to get on !
The sad thing is a farmer had his guttering repaired and the builders knocked all the nests down ! The birds frantically started buiding again in the same places !
D7000
800 ISO
Taken from vehicle-
Sigma 50-500 rested on window sill.
250th @f7
Slight crop. Neat image
Levels etc.
Thanks for Owl comments.
JohnR

[Ian Wilson]

Your pictures always have an interesting focus of attention and record of the environment which I like to see. The only tiny issue I have with this frame is the softness of the blue plumage on right-hand bird. Maybe it is due to the angle from which the feather fibres are being viewed as the surrounding parts of the bird look acceptably sharp. Cheers, Ian

[John Robinson]

Hi Ian
Thanks
Its probably just a shouilder flick at the shutter noise. hard to put sharpness there that wasn't there in the first place.
More of an interest shot than anything, but at least I didn't have to go to Africa to get it !!
I have recently realised that there is so much stuff in my home country I have not got pics of . But then at the end of the day- who wants them ???
Cheers
John

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image. Beautiful composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[christopher galeski]

nice shot,love the mud in the beaks,nice and low.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot very natural the angle looks low and good. Who wants your shots - you do and we want to see them, ..........you're not turning into a grumpy old man are you?? :bg3::w3

[John Robinson]

No I,m not John- been one for years.:t3 Its a simple fact that when I go, there will be 75,177 natural histoty files (at the last count ) chucked in the bin.
Not counting 20 thousand transparencies.
Be happy
Cheers
John

[William Dickson]

Hi John

Fab image, love these birds. Well done John :S3:

[Marina Scarr]

This is such a FUN image, John. Love how you can tell by their stance how unhappy they both are. Fun seeing both with mouths full of mud. Great behavior captured!!!

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks John
Brings back memories of late 1950s just outside Edinburgh of a flock of these regularly putting on a great flight show.
Nicely composed image.

[John Robinson]

Thanks all.
Ian- there has been a real decline in these this year around us locally. In fact like a lot of species.
Cheers
John

[Diane Miller]

Another wonderful shot! Quantity with quality is hard. You excel at it!

[John Robinson]

Thanks Diane
I was just about to retire
(I go to bed late )
Your support is to say the least - appreciated.
Cheers
JohnR

[Joe Galkowski]

This picture made me smile, but the text did bother me a touch (as a guy with a cabinet full of Velvia and K64 slides). I have been struggling with this topic myself lately. We take these pictures because this is our art. The swallow shot gives us joy and satisfaction. I used to make money with my bird images, but the truth is that I wasn't motivated by that. It was the ability to experience and then share how spectacular nature really is.

The share part is important. As most of my market seems to have gone away, we have to be more clever as to how to share. I have even thought about talking to the local libraries and seeing if they would take a self-published book of local wildlife photographs. It would cost me money and be a ton of work/fun to get the quality high, but I would gladly donate it. There are also web based sharing options like here, camera clubs, and the web-based stock agencies. The swallows are building a new nest, we need to build new ties.

The action caught here is great it tells the story well. The light is handled quite nicely. I am not sure you have motion blur on the guy on the right. 1/250 should freeze any motion plus, by the time the sound of the shutter reaches the bird, the exposure is done. You will have to look at the full size file.

[John Robinson]

Thanks all</SPAN></SPAN>
Joe</SPAN></SPAN>
You raise some interesting points.I have in fact donated everything to the local Naturalists Trust. I let them use all my stuff free of charge anyway. They would never have the time to sort them I reckon and would want them all catalogued and labelled and I haven’t the time for that.</SPAN></SPAN>
Like you I used to sell a lot of stuff but of course in those days there were not so many at it, Nowadays every one and his granny is a photographer. They give their stuff away to see it in print. Like you –I didn’t do it for the money but just to pay for gear and film and I was still way out of pocket.</SPAN></SPAN>
Think back some years when a publisher went around searching for a good lion picture. Look at the difference today – there are lion pictures coming out of peoples ears. The only pics that sell these days are ones of an animal or bird doing something daft or different and that’s why so many are after that “saleable “ shot. Ask them for a pic of a house sparrow and they haven’t got one.. They use other people too. You wouldn’t believe the number of time I have been approached – often with the offer of silver too !!</SPAN></SPAN>
Anyway - yes I am grumpy , and at my age I have earned the right to be.</SPAN></SPAN>
The reason is because when you are older you somehow seem to see the truths more easily. And many of them are not nice.</SPAN></SPAN>
I still get a buzz from taking pics and in fact have put a hide up on a Redstart today.</SPAN></SPAN>
Take care </SPAN></SPAN>
PS
The oof area on the blue shoulder is strange as the rest of the bird seems ok Its the same on the original.
John</SPAN></SPAN>