Cliff Swallow - Return of the Housewife!

[Bill Sharkey]

Got another performer coming in for a better look. Well, guess who had a camera ready!

Shot with Canon MIII, 400 5.6, spot meter, f5.6, 1/1250, ISO 500, manual exp, centrepoint focus, no flash, bushhawk.



Thanks for looking. :)

Bill

[Raymond Barlow]

What about "whats his name?" maybe he will post a shot? Awesome grab Bill killer shot.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great banking pose and capture. I wish for a bit less wing blur, I'm surprised the shutter speed was not higher at 9:30 AM. Was it originally overexposed? Have you tried evaluative metering?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice pose. Is this a full frame shot? Was the spot metering linked to centre point? What was the ISO? I am surprised that even 1/1250th was not sufficient.

[Bill Sharkey]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

This image was taken on a hazy day, My exposure is basically "as you see it". It took up almost 1/2 the frame.

1/1250 is really too slow for these guys. Even at 1/2000 the tips are sometimes blurred. I could have bumped up my ISO for a faster frame rate.

Bill

[Jim Fenton]

Is it really a shutter speed issue or a DOF issue?

It appears to my eyes that both wing tips become OOF at roughly the same point along the wing. While wing tip speed is somewhat higher than the overall wing speed (flap speed), it almost look to be more of a DOF issue to me?

[Fabs Forns]

I'll take as is :)

[Doug Brown]

I'm with Fabs on this one! I think I'm going to have to play around with a Bushhawk. Have you used it with a 500? If so, how do you like that combination?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent as is. Pretty darn impressive :-)

[Robert O'Toole]

Wow Bill what an amazing bank image. Good work congrats.

Judging by the blur pattern, it looks like a second image, It think is shutter speed more than DOF. It think you would need 2500 and more DOF to get the tips sharp.

Robert

[Bill Sharkey]

Thanks everyone.

Jim, not sure about the DOF being too shallow. The increased width of the white lines in the upper wing would suggest that movement is the culprit.

Doug, the bushhawk is great but like everything in flight photography, practice is key. I always use it, sometimes with the 500 f4. It's great but some may not be able to work all day with it. :)

Thanks Daniel :)

Bill

[Arthur Morris]

This is one amazing capture. The pose is amazing as is the sharpness. I especially love the spread tail and the perfect head angle.

Would love to see it with the middle tones a bit darker as it looks overall light to me (before and after checking the calibration strip...)

What were you spot metering???

The EXP settings at ISO 500 seem low for an apparently sunny blue sky day....

This leads to the last question, why not f/8?

[Bill Sharkey]

Artie,
It was a hazy morning with thin cirrus cloud cover, hence, low on light. Should have bumped the ISO to 800 and raised my shutter speed, but I was determining whether 5.6 was enough to catch these little buggers while blurring (better bokeh), the sometimes, unpleasant BG's.

I shoot only manual exposure by spot metering something similar in color/lightness as the birds I am going to shoot. Then adjust the settings for the size/speed of the bird. I like to relate the actual light reading from a similar object so that I minimize any exposure errors. This can be a challenge when shooting B&W birds like loons. Only recently have I increased the ISO and find that it works great if the subject is fairly close. Normally, I shoot f8.

My other shot has a DOF limit. http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=16253

Thanks for the comments :)

Bill

[Glenn Bartley]

Skillfully captured. Well done!

[Ramon M. Casares]

Although it is too bright it is indeed a terrific, not easy shot! Congratulations!

[Arthur Morris]

Bill Sharkey wrote:

It was a hazy morning with thin cirrus cloud cover, hence, low on light.

Thanks for that info.

I shoot only manual exposure by spot metering something similar in color/lightness as the birds I am going to shoot. Then adjust the settings for the size/speed of the bird. I like to relate the actual light reading from a similar object so that I minimize any exposure errors. This can be a challenge when shooting B&W birds like loons. Only recently have I increased the ISO and find that it works great if the subject is fairly close.

With digital that approach does not make a lot of sense to me... Or at least you need to check the histogram after making one image (assuming that the light is constant).