Tree Swallow Flight

[Roman Kurywczak]

Went out again for 3 hours yesterday for the tree swallow at a local park.........partly cloudy when I started.......went to very overcast when this was taken.......hence the ISO 1600....was concentrating on flight.......these little guys are fast! Canon Mark 3 and the Sigma 300-800mm and the 1.4 tele at 1023mm. ISO 1600 at f8 and 1/1250 sec. Tripod, wimberly head, flash with better beamer at minus 2/3. Added a bit of canvas to the left (super small wingtip clip) and removed equal part on right. Noise ninja appled in PP.
As always comments welcomed and appreciated.

[Gus Cobos]

I like the details on the wings and that "spread eagle position"...:D For my taste, I would lighten the deep green in the background just a tad Roman... I like it...:)

[Sid Garige]

Really like the wing position and complementing background. Looks little soft, but considering your limitations with sigmonster and 1.4x it is a very nice image.

[Freddy Franzella]

Roman this is so cool! I like the way you caught the wing spread, the fan tail, and that great pose!

[Paul Pagano]

The wings are awesome, Roman. On my screen, the breast and head do seem soft. Maybe tweaking the NN would improve that some. Beautiful Swallow!

[Harold Davis]

Too Cool!! congrats on the shot. i know how difficult that is and at 1023mm, that is insane!!

[Sid Overbey]

Really nice capture. Looks like he is coming in for a landing. I know how fast these guys are and this was quite a feat.

Sid

[Robert O'Toole]

Great spread and tail fan Roman! As mentioned, inpressive, but the eye and bill is a bit softish.

I find that Canon AF, esp MKIII body AF, nail the tail feathers or feet more times that not when shooting straight on. Have you noticed that?

Robert

[Roman Kurywczak]

Great spread and tail fan Roman! As mentioned, inpressive, but the eye and bill is a bit softish.

I find that Canon AF, esp MKIII body AF, nail the tail feathers or feet more times that not when shooting straight on. Have you noticed that?

Robert

I agree on the softish.......Did I forget to mention Manual focus??? I would have preferred to be at 1/2000 sec. at least and flash at manual 1/8 power........next time! The Pigmonster will not auto focus with the Canon 1.4...............am looking into the Sigma 1.4.........if it auto focuses. I feel that in this image the softness was more due to speed and f stop..........than anything else........i may be wrong. This guy was coming in to mate with the female who was on a birdhouse right below him.............I'll have to check if some of the profiles images are sharper. Did I mention they were rockets???
PS I haven't had any issues with my blue dot mark 3.....no fixes yet either.

[Doug Brown]

Boy did you get a nice wing spread Roman! As mentioned earlier, the bird is a little soft; but we'll forgive that since you were in manual focus! ;) Persistence, and perhaps a TC that will enable AF, will pay you great dividends!