Tree Swallow

[Kerry Perkins]

From Cachuma Lake. Used a fence to steady the lens. Converted in LR2, then sharpened and tweaked in CS4.

50D, EF400mm f/5.6L
Aperture priority, f/5.6@1/250 ISO 800 AWB EC +2/3
AI Servo autofocus using back button, hand-held no flash

I know some won't like the square-ish aspect, but in this case it was all I could do to keep the bg acceptable. :o

[Pete Padilla]

Very nice Kerry. Background matches his coloring and makes a fantastic shot. Not sure what he's perching on but if the couple of white spots were not there I think my eye would stay on the bird.
Pete

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Kerry,
I like the capture...you have good details and good color redition...love the head angle...would suggest not having the perch coming out of an intersecting corner...might add a tad of canvas on the bottom to raise the perch a bit...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

hI kerry - is this a large crop - am I seeing some smoothing of detail along the back of the wings??

Love the HA and the BG - agree with Gus about the perch coming out of the corner.

Keep em coming :)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Kerry nothing wrong with the square crop I never pay attention and crop to look best !!

I like the tech settings very much and using the back button .... neat. Tried it for six months (all the time) and gave it up !!! btw the area on the base of the wing seems in sharper focus than the face area !!

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks guys. This was a problematic shot, especially the crop. There is bright distracting bg just under the bird so I had to crop that close to the wire. I was behind a chain link fence and could not move to a more favorable angle, which also affected the plane of focus.

Pete, good eye to catch those spots - will clean up before printing. This one was a good learning experience!

[Christopher Miller]

Kerry, Very nice! I love the HA with the bird looking right at you. Would be nice if the bird was a bit sharper, but looks like you did well under the circumstances.

[Jeni Williams]

I like the colours , ha and bg. Agree, you did well under difficult circumstances.