Fairy Martin in flight

[Paul Randall]

Fairy martin (Hirundo ariel)

Been trying for ages to get a flight shot of this species but they are so fast, probably faster than Swallow on the most part. Had the opportunity the other day with a group of rather predictable little guys. Not sure about the pano style crop, thought the wings flat out pose sort of dictated it but tell me what you think
All comments, reposts etc welcome :D Paul

Canon 5D 600mm f4 L (non IS) iso 800 1/3200th f7.1 CW metering -1/3 tripod mounted
Photoshop- slight sharpen, cloned out parts of another bird from bottom of frame, blur tool used as NR on BG

[Michael Hogan]

Paul, Great shot. We don't have this exact species here but ones like it and trying to get them in flight is almost impossible. Well captured, love the BG, wing position and the tilt and sharpness of the head. I think the pano crop is Ok, might be a bit tight but not sure what else you could do.

TFS

Michael

[christopher galeski]

nice one Paul,love the HA,BG nice,I would like a bit more room all round,IMO, but still very nice as is,thanks.

[Haim Ziv]

Killer shot!!!

[Paul Randall]

Something like this guys? Had to reprocess so may not be exactly the same (colour and exposure wise). I think I prefer it too. Thanks all.:D

[Randy Stout]

Paul:

Nice capture of a challenging bird.
RE: crop - I think it works well with pano, but because of the birds direction of gaze, might consider placing slightly more to the left of the frame, looking down to the right corner. Just personal preference.Of the two images posted, I prefer the second.

Cheers

Randy

[Xavier Maessen]

Paul this is an amazing capture! I did a sloppy job changing the orientation of the image to "level" the head. What do you think?

[Myer Bornstein]

The last post is very interestingit just needs to have some canvas added to the top and I would crop the two-way square so that the bird is filling the diagonal

[Andreas Lentfer]

I still like the first version best. To get this kind of bird in such quality - there is not much more one could ask for.
Regards
Andreas.

[Paul Randall]

Paul this is an amazing capture! I did a sloppy job changing the orientation of the image to "level" the head. What do you think?

Thanks Xavier, totally changes the image for me unfortunately. Of course, the photographer always has the way the image was taken in the back of their mind and any different orientation looks wrong to them so others might find your version preferable.
Thanks for taking the time to have a play with it. Thanks everyone else for looking too:)

[Mital Patel]

not sure bout the last edit but i like the 1st and 2nd. specially 2nd is for the perfect horizon angled and with nice HA with more vibrant bg.