Female Purple Martin.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Every summer I like to head out to a local Purple Martin "condo" a few times to get some birds-in-flight practice. Lots of fun to photograph, and challenging as they are fast and manoeuvre on a dime mid-air.

The best bet is to check out the local weather report and head out on a clear day with strong winds (making sure both the wind and the sun are at your back: e.g. west or south west winds in the early evening, or east winds early morning). Those strong winds have the martins hovering for a few moments before landing on their select apartment off the condo structure.

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/2000s., f/4, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped from horizontal but canvas added top and bottom (this one was so close to being clipped!!), darkened the pupil, some dodging under the throat, condo structure part cloned out at right.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:


Nicely done, and good tips on how to do it! I find swallows to be a real challenge with their darting and speedy flight. I guess I had better get out and try it again!

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Good advice on the technics, (we use it for Terns) and nice image, Daniel.

[keith mitchell]

Daniel will try to remember your advice the next time I try to photograph birds like this,smashing detail.

Keith.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys. Keep in mind that although I made it sound easy in writing be prepared to trash a pretty large number of files! The keeper rate is very low....

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Yes sir... very nice indeed.. these buggers are very difficult, and can test ones patience for sure. Excellent capture, and write up.. thks for sharing!!
Don

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I don't bother. Too hard.
Well done Daniel, superb execution, but I am not keen on the very tight comp. Though it kind of suits the tightly tucked in wings.
TFS

[Lorant Voros]

Not an easy shot to get for sure of this fast bird. Nice full down wing position and great eye, super detail. Good one, Dan.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent flight shot in nice lights.
Like the down stroke wings and fanned tail.

Regards,
Satish.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I´ve myself have tried with very bad results to get one of these in flight, not easy but it seems like it´s not for you! thanks for the extra tips on how to achieve this kind of images.