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Thread: South African Cliff Swallow

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    Default South African Cliff Swallow

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    D3s 600mm, ISO 1000, EV 0, 1/3200 sec at f7.1. These swallows were hovering over a nest of insects that hatched just after the rains. They were still very hard to capture as they are so fast.

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    Very difficult bird to capture, and you managed to get a great pose! Love the open beak and half way down landing gear :)

    Composition is great, head is sharp as a tack, and the BG contrasts the bird well. Only wish the lighting was a little less from the top, with less shadowing from the wings.

    Charles

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    Todd Frost
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    Nice capture of this little bullet. Nice and sharp. Chosen comp works well. Well done.
    TFS
    Todd

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Another great Swallow capture. They fly too fast for me. Love the head angle and open beak. Might have wished for slightly different wing position and softer light, but you take what you can get.

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    BPN Viewer Pieter de Waal's Avatar
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    Hi Vivaldo, nice capture with good colours and exposure as well as great HA and eye contact. A fully extended wing would have been great but with these fast flyers not that easy, well done.

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Harsh light and resulting strong contrast, and not the best wing position, but man you did a great job getting this guy sharp...not easy for sure!! Good BG, but I'd remove the yellowish spot at bottom.

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    By "hard to capture," I'm assuming you mean focusing in time. But capture in the sense of getting a sharp shot is doable, and you prove it with your swallow. With the D3S and in that bright light, you could easily have gone to ISO 2000, which would have halved your exposure time to 1/6400 sec., and that wing would have been even sharper. You probably could have gone to ISO 3200 or even higher. For examples, look under Craig's started threads for the goldcrests and the dusky thrush that I posted two days ago.

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    Thanks for comments appreciated Craig do agree with higher Shutter speed. I could have also open the aperture to F5.6 and that would have helped. I will have a look at the thread posted and your posted image

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Hey Vivaldo, great HA, and just love that BG. Well done on capturing this very, very fast flyer.

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    Lifetime Member James Salywoda's Avatar
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    Fantastic ! A clean shot and a beautiful pose well done.

  11. #11
    Ákos Lumnitzer
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    Not the best light or wing pose and I agree with that, however, the fact you got this fella sharp just speaks tons. Well done for that alone! Keep on shootin'! :)

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