This one goes back quite a long while, but it's a good shot for the theme this month. There are a few things that I would like to have a chance to reshoot on this image but so far I haven't had a chance with another nest that was so successful. This is also a composite of two different frames. On the frame that the adult came from only four of the young were clearly visible, and in the other frame that the nest and young came from the adult was slightly cut off. The nest is located about five feet from a Dutch door with the top open, to get the timing right I had to watch from another window for the parents approaching outside and fire the shot almost the instant I saw movement come through the door. Having already seen them coming this seemed to give me just the right amount of warning, and with the delay from my brain to my fingers to the camera it seemed to be just about right. I also missed quite a few shots too. The birds were pretty tolerant because there was a fair amount of activity in the barn on a regular basis but even so I chose to composite the two images rather than cause any undue stress by trying for the perfect single frame capture.
Canon 1DII (not 1DXII, the 8.2mp 1DII), 400mm f/5.6L (prefocused, manual focus), two 580EX II speedlites, cable release from a tripod, 1/125, f/11, ISO 400
Nice timing my first reaction was to check if flash had been used it looks "flashed" to me,I think some clever dodging and burning and or luminosity masking could minimise the flash appearance. I like the image, the swallows look pretty good I would suggest lowing the brightness of the nest and woodwork.
So many mouths to feed
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