Dragonslayer.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Same vicinity as my last post, but another nest box. This one had young ones in it as the parents went out foraging for insects and bringing them back into the box. Most of the time they would come in with 4-5 small (almost indiscernible) insects in their bills, but this one came in with a large dragonfly instead...cool!

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/7.1, ISO 400, no EC, natural light, handheld, car used as blind.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_TreeSwallow_4017-01.jpg

[Ramon M. Casares]

Very nice! Great pose, great catch, lovely light, exppsure, colors, detail and comp. Perch work for me.
Congratulations!

[Sid Garige]

Very nice work. Like the background and excellent eye contact.

[Brian Barcelos]

Daniel, what everyone else said! Dragonfly definitely a huge plus. Love seeing birds with their "victims"!
Brian

[Julie Kenward]

Excellent image, Daniel! I'd be tempted to blend that darker area of the BG directly above his head so it better matched the main green. Everything else is perfection!

[Juan Aragonés]

The swallow looks very proud of the prey ;-)
The BG is fantastic, I love the soft light and the quite pose of the bird. The dragonfly makes this image for me Daniel.
The perch is not the best but it is a common perch for this guys.

[Stu Bowie]

Sure does look like he's showing off his catch before he feeds the youngsters. Lovely head turn, and well exposed on the colours. I like the OOF BG too. Well captured Daniel.

[Morkel Erasmus]

all been said. stunning detail, eye contact, exposure and the dragonfly makes it. ditto perch but you can't have everything perfect all the time - we build stuff, they sit on them. :)