Every summer I like to head out to a local Purple Martin "condo" a few times to get some birds-in-flight practice. Lots of fun to photograph, and challenging as they are fast and manoeuvre on a dime mid-air.
The best bet is to check out the local weather report and head out on a clear day with strong winds (making sure both the wind and the sun are at your back: e.g. west or south west winds in the early evening, or east winds early morning). Those strong winds have the martins hovering for a few moments before landing on their select apartment off the condo structure.
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/2000s., f/4, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped from horizontal but canvas added top and bottom (this one was so close to being clipped!!), darkened the pupil, some dodging under the throat, condo structure part cloned out at right.
Nicely done, and good tips on how to do it! I find swallows to be a real challenge with their darting and speedy flight. I guess I had better get out and try it again!
Thanks guys. Keep in mind that although I made it sound easy in writing be prepared to trash a pretty large number of files! The keeper rate is very low....
Yes sir... very nice indeed.. these buggers are very difficult, and can test ones patience for sure. Excellent capture, and write up.. thks for sharing!!
Don
I don't bother. Too hard.
Well done Daniel, superb execution, but I am not keen on the very tight comp. Though it kind of suits the tightly tucked in wings.
TFS
I´ve myself have tried with very bad results to get one of these in flight, not easy but it seems like it´s not for you! thanks for the extra tips on how to achieve this kind of images.
Female Purple Martin.
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