I just love getting opportunities to shoot chicks and this one was so cool yet a real challenge for me and full of more lessons learned when it comes to photography. These barn swallow chicks were found under a bridge in a very dark corner. I had never seen barn swallow chicks so I was super excited to be fortunate to see what I could come up with. The biggest challenge was the light and being able to stop the action of the parent bird coming in to feed while maintaining enough dof to get it all in focus. They would come in and be gone literally in the blink of an eye. Always with precision aim they would fly right into the mouth of a chick and be gone in seconds. For this shot the parent bird stopped for a few seconds probably because the food was a big moth and hard to get into the chicks mouth. The shadows were something I just couldn't avoid but if I get this opportunity again I would love to try some new ways to shoot it
Canon 1DMIV
500mm f4 lens with 1.4 extender
ISO 800 f20 @1/250
Flash set at manual at 1/2 with better beamer
60% of full frame NR added as well as removal of steel eye.







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