Tree Swallow Strikes a Magestic Pose

[Stephen Stephen]

Canon 40D. Sigma 50-500mm @ 500, ISO 320, F6.3 1/1000. Handheld while using SUV as a blind.

My friend Dan Cadieux let me know that some of our Bluebird pairs had returned for the spring/summer. I took yesterday off to capture some images of them since I had very few. I got some great images that I'll share soon but here's one of a tree swallow from the same location.

The bluebirds were trying to defend two nest boxes against 4 tree swallows. Every so often one of the landed long enough to allow me to create an image at around 8:30 a.m. This one is full frame vertically but I've cropped slightly it from the landscape format I took it in.

I mornally would have cropp more off of the right hand side but I didn't want to cut off the end of the perch. I suppose that I could have also used a touch of Fill flash to lighten the shadowed areas but I was concerned about frightening the birds since I was so close.

[Fabs Forns]

Nicely composed and good exposure considering the side light. I would run some more USM on it :)

[Bonnie Block]

Great pose and exposure, Stephen. I would like to see a bit more detail around the eye if it were possible.

[MarcusArmani]

very nice capture of this tree swallow, I cant ever seem to get them perched like this, I dont see any faults in the comosition, I would not run another complete USM, but maybe a slight selective sharpening around the eye area..

[Kaushik Balakumar]

sharpness looks fine to me. nice image over-all.
i guess trying to further bring out details around the eyes might show up grains (noise) in the same region. hence wud leave it as it is.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice pose and iridescence. Maybe you could have stopped down more for wider DOF.

[John Chardine]

Very nice Stephen. Looks sharp to me as well. I love the sweeping curve the bird makes from top right to bottom left. I would have brought out some detail (if there is any) in the shadow around the eye just to give it a bit more life.

[Stephen Stephen]

Thank you Fabs, Bonnie, Marcus, Kausik, Axel and John. I've re-worked the image as suggested. I think that the eye in particular is a little better.

[Freddy Franzella]

Nice image!1 whites look good! well done!

[Simon Bennett]

First class image Stephen - I prefer the first one - plenty sharp enough and more detail in the whites.