House martin (Delichon urbicum)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hand held image from Mull House martin collecting mud for nesting material.
OM System : OM-1
Focal length in 35 mm film : 841.0mm
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO : 1250
Exposure compensation : +0.3 EV
Shutter : 1/3200 sec
Aperture : F5.6

ACR/PSCC

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon ... for sure a difficult subject to photograph , and you did quite well !
At least it is decently sharp and the pose is ok , haven't seen an image like this before !!!
I think the fore and background is a bit " busy " ...maybe blurring slightly might help with that .

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Andreas, I did consider the background but then I thought why fake it - what is wrong with showing the bird as it was? I think we get a bit too entangled with making things as we wish they were as opposed to how they were. Nature is random the human mind is far from that - it is organised and orderly and simply not natural. We as humans tend to want to see things clear and in perfect light with no shadows with clear backgrounds well that sometimes happens but frequently doesn't. I could have blurred the background - by a variety of different means, to make the bird standout more but would you have believed it was like that or would you have thought the result was contrived? Any way it is a pretty sharp bird under tricky circumstances so it will do for me, I am content! Sorry if this sounds like a rant I am not being particularly critical of your comments - maybe it is me who is kicking against tradition. Hey I am old fart and I can

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon .... regardless if you are an " old fart " or a young one , yes you can . You are the artist ....

[Arthur Morris]

Neat capture with the mud filled mouth. Getting as low as possible would improve the BKGR.

with love, artie