Cliff swallow
This is a cliff swallow, taken in the early am in the mountains of Montana, canon 400d. It was 37 degrees when I took the shot (on 7/13) and I think the bird felt it.
Sigma 170-500mm lens at 500 mm, 20 mm extension tube.
f8
ISO 400
1/250
selective sharpening around the eyes. A little noise reduction on the background and a slight crop.
Great image Dave,
I like the warm rich colors of your bird. You have good eye contact and sharp details. The soft pastel hues of brown in he background really makes your bird pop...congats on a job well done...:cool:
Lovely warm tones - bird is sharp - eye contact is good.
Well done :)
I agree! The warm colors bring out the mood.Originally Posted by Gus Cobos
BTW, does the extension tube gives you more reach or it let you have a smaller minimum focusing distance? How does it help in shooting a shot like this?
Hi Dave, beautiful image - love the colours and killer BG!
Excellent Dave. Very sharp, background and colors are great. If I had to nit about anything it would be that the bird is dead center in the frame. Would add a bit more canvas to the right. Otherwise a truly beautiful capture.
Congrats
Dave
Terrific image. May be your best post so far. Well done
Gail
Beautiful lighting, Dave! Wow! Great DOF and very nice composition. Would have liked the eye to be turned just a bit more towards you but otherwise a spotless image!
Dave, major ditto's and more. I agree, this is surely one of your best.
Thank you for the comments.
Desmond, the extension tube does 2 things. First and most important, it decreases the focusing distance and allows me to get closer to the bird. I lose the ability to focus at far distances, but to take a picture of a songbird at 50 feet is useless anyway. Also, the extension tube adds some magnification (similar to increasing the size of a slide image by moving the projector backwards). It does so with a slight loss of light and no loss of image quality. The effect isn't great with a 500 mm lens, but Art Morris has a section on this in his first book The Art of Bird Photography, and his examples of image enlargement are more than the formulas would suggest.
Excellent photo Dave! I wouldn't change a thing. Congrats!
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