Fast dinner - Violet-Green Swallow & Chick

[Craig Markham]

Canon EOS-1D Mark III
EF500mm f/4L IS USM
07/09/09 8:15:28 PM
Manual Exposure
1/250, f/4.0
Evaluative Metering
ISO 800
RAW
Flash, External E-TTL, -1 comp w/ Better Beamer
One-Shot AF, prefocused
Wimberley II on Gitzo 3541LS CF tripod

The Violet-Green Swallow chicks in the nest box on the woodshed are nearly ready to fledge -- a good time to catch them interacting with the adults at feeding time. They stick their heads out of the box and visually track the adults as they zoom in with more insects.

This is an uncropped image. I prefocused on the chick before arrival of the parent, and by closely watching through the viewfinder the tracking and anticipatory behavior of the chick, I was able to snap the image just as the adult entered the frame. It all happened in less than 1/10 second, so perfect timing worked much better than trying to use high-speed continuous mode and dumb luck. Ambient light source was evening twilight, so flash was essential.

PP: I cloned away a distracting nail projecting from the box, used a bit of noise reduction, and a minimal selective sharpening on the adult's head.

[Gal Shon]

Excellent capture !
For me the signature is very big

[Craig Markham]

Thank you, Gal, I agree that the sig was overboard, so I've gone back and reduced it to a more reasonable size.

[Gal Shon]

Much better,
the signature color (if I remember correctly) as been changed for the better as well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good action you captured - just at the right moment too. Good patience. I like the wood "grain" on the box. Bummer that both head angles are a little off, and I kinda wish the wings of the incoming parent were in the up position instead to offer us a complete view of the legs. You mention uncropped, and you probably like it this way, but I would crop a bit from above to eliminate the diagonal piece of wood up there. Still, this is a difficult image to get - kudos for getting it as sharp as it is! I bet it was alot of fun too :-)

[Stu Bowie]

Craig, Its always great to see the youngsters screaming for their food. Perfect timing to see the parent hovering before the feed. I would crop off at the top to just below the beam, and I do find the darker area of the BG competing with the wing.

[Craig Markham]

Thank you, Daniel, I too docked the original post a little for the head angles, wing position and OOF head of adult. However, what turned me on about that particular image was the screaming urgency of the youngster and it's absolute focus on the adult. The distance between the birds was, I think, perfect for capturing the sheer anticipation of the feeding. The adult's wings were always in this forward position each time it reached this distance from the box. I limited myself somewhat by using such a tight frame -- very tricky to get the bird at all -- but I wanted to trim the fat as much as possible.

Here's another image (I captured about 25 different feeding episodes). It's probably closer to what you had in mind for the adult's wing position -- again consistent for most of the feeding episodes. I liked capturing the face-plant feeding - the bugs are really going down the hatch! But the urgency evident in my original post is lost here. So wing position notwithstanding, my favorite is the 1st post.

Thanks again; love your work!

==============
Stuart, thank you for your comment as well. I agree that the wing merges excessively with the dark area, which I, or actually the bird, avoided in the second post image. I'm happy you appreciated the "FEED ME" mood!

--Craig

[Mark Dumbleton]

Super interaction captured here! Well done on super timing, but agree on cropping the beam off.
Thanks for sharing and posting the second image!

[Diego Torrentes]

Very well done, for a picture very difficult to make. I like the bird expression captured and also the details shown.

Bye,