To Feather Her Nest

[Norm Dulak]

Nikon D300 with Sigma 300-800 mm f/5.6 lens at 800 mm. ISO 800, 1/400 sec @ f/7.1.

I'm sending this image to this forum, because I think that it illustrates two important points for those who are relatively new to nature photography. First, you don't have to travel to exotic places to find beauty. There is much to enjoy in your own back yard, as I show here. Secondly, it is a plus if you can capture the behavior of the subject that you are observing.

Here, we see a male tree swallow bearing a feather for his nest. His mate is incubating eggs in a nearby bluebird box feathered with such offerings.

Norm Dulak

[David Thomasson]

I like the composition, the plain background, and the stance of the bird. The head turn is excellent. I don't know if the wings
are in a typical position for this species, but it reminds me of a man standing with his hands clasped behind him and
a bit of straw dangling from his mouth. First-rate capture.

[Harold Davis]

nice comments by david. i see a little noise in the bg. i totally agree with your comments, norm. just this passed weekend i discovered some treasures nearby during a time of the year when FL is relatively quiet. cant wait to go back now!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Norm,
I fully agree with your point of view about photographing birds in our own backyard as we would say. I like the head turn, eye contact and the fine details in the wings, the color rendition is good...I would suggest on running a low intensity pass of noise reduction in the background...good show...looking forward to more...:cool:

[Dave Mills]

Norm, Nice position and an interesting story. Would have liked to see more detail in the whites.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Norm

Strong points made !!! Good photography can be close by and capturing behavior makes all the difference for a fine image !!! Wing position and feather does it for me !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Norm - another Sigmonster Fan - :)
Totally agree with you - some of the best opportunities are right under your nose.
Love the pose and the HA - Feather is a bonus - Little noise is the only thing.
Keep them coming :)

[Norm Dulak]

Norm, Nice position and an interesting story. Would have liked to see more detail in the whites.

To Dave and all of the others, thanks for the comments on my image!

I didn't appreciate that I had a noise problem when I posted my image, but I hope that Noise Ninja gently applied to this repost has corrected that problem.

But what bothered me more in my original posting is that I lost data in the white areas of the bird that were present in the RAW and psd files, when I converted to JPEG for uploading here. In this repost, I've tried to be more careful with detail my camera captured in the white areas.

Finally, although I've posted in this forum and in the other forums, I find this forum to be the most congenial and interesting. Congratulations to all of the moderators and participants!

Norm Dulak