Violet-green swallow in flight

[Geoff Newhouse]

This was shot with Canon 7D2, 300 f/2.8 IS II at 300mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO 500, Handheld in 65pt Auto selection to track the swallow against blue sky. Thousands of throwaways landed about 6 keepers and this was one. Crop is heavy, heavy and some more heavy....this is 1334x984 left over from the original 7D2 resolution.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Geoff, these guys arent easy to capture in flight, but you have nailed a great flight pose with the near wing fully extended downwards. I do like the colours on this species, as I havent seen this one before. Comp wise I would take some off the top. Your large crop has resulted in some loss of IQ, but unfortunately, these guys are fairly small, so one needs to have them basically landing on the end of your lens to get a decent shot.

[arash_hazeghi]

it's a very tough bird to get in flight, unfortunately this one isn't a keeper in my book. the focus is soft and there is lots of noise and not much detail

better luck next time

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, tough for sure! A windy day near a nest box would be your best bet. Fun to practice though.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Agreed. No detail is the result of heavy cropping.
Keep at it, you certainly have set yourself a tough target to nail!
TFS

[WillieHall]

having worked on several species of swallows, I appreciate the difficulty. The color of this species that you captured so well is noteworthy. I thank you for this post and the quality that you did capture. It may not be up to some folks standards, but at the least it is a quality ID photo!

[adrian dancy]

A hard bird to nail. Sadly the IQ is off a bit. All you can do is get this bird in the wider environment and hope the image works...which it may:)

[Geoff Newhouse]

Thanks all. IQ has suffered of course from the massive crop and I had to do some significant NR on the bird after sharpening as I was getting the infamous LR orange peel affect. Keeper for me with this subject just meant in focus...LOL. I have other swallow species with much more detail but I don't know where the violet-green is nesting so difficult to get it in flight for me.