Tree Swallow and Young: Airborne feeding!

[Warren Spreng]

This is a good time of year to go to the park across the street to catch the Tree and Barn Swallows feeding their young. Often times the young fly up to meet the adults in mid-air and the exchange is fun to watch! It is much easier to set up a tripod though when the young are in a nearby tree and await the adults coming back to make a quick exchange. With bright clouds this was a challenge especially since the bellies are white but I was pleased with this shot of an adult Tree Swallow and his youngster. I actually got one shot where the adults head is halfway down the fledglings throat but the wings weren't in a good position! This is mid morning on June 23rd. Processed in PS CC, cloned out some OOF branches, cropped about 20%.

Canon 7D Mark II, Tamron 150-600mm, 483mm, ISO1600, 1/4000, f/8.0, tripod, remote shutter release

[Adhika Lie]

Warren, I don't even know where to begin. A lot of actions, I love the pose, the wing position, the perch. The exposure is spot on, I like the high key look on this picture. Very nicely done!!!!

[Diane Miller]

What Adhika said!! Wonderful shot, great poses, sharp and detailed. I'd be tempted to remove a bit from the left if you're not committed to the aspect ratio.

The bright BG here is not swamping out detail in the darker tones, but here's an old trick to maximize tonal separation in darks -- you might recognize it from some astro processing methods. After moving the black point in, I reduced the curvature as needed for the brighter tones, moving the midpoint of the curve down. You can get fancier with the curve as desired.



Here's the result:

[Jim Keener]

Ditto Adhika and Diane. Please imagine varied superlatives. I like Diane's repo, as there is a subtle increase in texture in the shadow under the adult's near wing. I trust this will go in your winners folder.

[Warren Spreng]

Wow, thanks Adhika, Diane and Jim! Thanks Diane, I had actually done a similar move and then backed off due to the noise starting to show up in that dark part of the wing but may revisit with the increase in details that it brings out!

[Stuart Philpott]

Warren this works for me too,man your exposure is SOOOOO good... really well done. Your tree swallow looks so like our house martin...how and where do they build their nests??

Warren thanks for this I really can't find something to critique constructively especially as you had Diane's thoughts already in hand, but I have really enjoyed staring at this image of yours!!

tfs

Stu

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Stu! They will often nest in bird houses but also in hollows in trees. They have a beautiful, fluid song.

[Hazel Grant]

Just adding my admiration for this, Warren. So nice. (and appreciation for Diane's redo, too).

[Glennie Passier]

Late to the party Warren! All the good things are already said. This is very good! I can appreciate the effort (and your expertise) in getting this image. Love the high key look.

They must be such fun to watch....almost as good as a rainbow lorikeet!?

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Hazel and Glennie! Almost as fun Glennie, they just don't come to my backyard! :) Although a few years ago when I would mow my lawn, I would have 2 or 3 Barn Swallows that would swoop around me grabbing bugs that were flying up from the mower disturbing them and I felt like I was in some sort of Disney movie with all these little birds swooping around me!

[Bob Smith]

A terrific capture Warren and I was particularly interested to see the lens you used to get such a fine image.

[Warren Spreng]

A terrific capture Warren and I was particularly interested to see the lens you used to get such a fine image.

Thanks Bob! Yes, for a fairly inexpensive lens it has served me well!

[Arthur Morris]

Ah, a different view, in part. Great job on capturing the action with pretty darned good views of both faces. The repost is much too noisy. The problem in part began with the RAW file which was almost surely under-exposed. I would have worked in Manual mode at at least +3 stops off the white sky, probably a bit more. In these situations you want at least a few blinkies in the sky or else the subject(s) will be under-exposed. As here.

Lastly, it would have been great had they chosen a lower branch as your angle of inclination is pretty steep.

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks for the comments Arhur! Still working to get the right exposure when I am faced with a sky such as this, good suggestion that I'll incorporate!