A dynamic pose. Your underexposure has left a good amount of noise creep in, also to my eye this does not look sharp, but I've been at the computer and then photographing all day, could be me. I like the composition and the look he's giving you.
The head and underbelly don't look at bad but could use a bit more selective sharpening but the tops of the wings are definitely too soft. I'm not too sure what to recommend for the BG - it's really pretty far gone because of the noise.
Great action image, though. I love the wing turn - it's something you don't see every day.
Guess my excitement from catching a tree swallow just after take-off clouded my judgment :o because, to me, the take-off of a small bird is pretty much invisible with the naked eyes.
The shutter speed I used certainly could not freeze everything there. Also, the 300mm of the 70-300 usually gives softer images. The background is totally oof trees. I primarily reduced the noise of the background and left the lighter part of the bird largely untouched since I don't want to loose the details. Nothing I could do re the blurred wings, but I think they convey the sense of speed and energy better than those frozen ones.
Again, thanks again for looking and leaving your comments/suggestions !
Yes, it was near a nest box.
Last edited by Desmond Chan; 06-17-2009 at 01:14 AM.
D, Many try for this type of capture and few capture it! Great job!! I would do a selective mask on the dark area around the left eye and see what you can pull up for a bit more detail - Bob
I agree with the techs mentioned, but also with Bob about how hard these guys are to catch. I have a few nest boxes that I visit, and can get a pretty good angle on them, but even with a lot of practice, find it not easy to really capture one sharp,right angle, etc.
So, use this one as inspiration to keep after it. The lens you used isn't the fastest focuser out there, which really adds to your accomplishment.
Catching one of these guys in flight is difficult. I like the feel of the image, "day in the life stuff" and have spent hours trying to catch one with no luck, I like it.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 06-17-2009 at 07:43 AM.
I like the head angle and it always is a challenge to get these guys in flight. I wish we could see the underside of the near wing and would give it a bit more room.
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