Blue gem
I haven't posted much lately, partly because the birds are only just now returning to New Brunswick on migration. After an early start, things have slowed right down.
The Tree Swallows are setting up home in a nearby marsh and they seem to be very tame if you approach slowly. This male just stood there as I slowly approached to minimum focus distance on the 400DO.
Full-frame image. Perhaps it's a bit tight on the subject at the top? I dodged the eye area a little and sharpened. The narrow DoF obscures the rather ugly railing perch.
The subject line is a little misleading as the bird is actually grey and white. The blue comes from light hitting the micro-structure of the feathers rather than real blue pigment.
Postscript 1- a note about Manual exposure. I was out all morning in nice, flat light which did not change that much. I was photographing all sorts of things from swallows to ducks on water and flying, all with different backgrounds. Early on in the session I determined the correct exposure of the subjects by trial and error, then just set the camera to manual and shot all morning without thinking about it. In Av mode, I would have been forever compensating the exposure by different amounts, which would have been a huge distraction from the great experience.
Postscript 2- IMO, anything but flat light like this makes for an almost impossible exposure challenge for subjects like Tree Swallows. In bright sun, you expose for the whites and the dark parts of the bird are underexposed, and the structural sheen on the birds overpowers the images and hides the beautiful, subtle nature of the colour.
Date: 5 May, 2012, Time: 1225h
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF400mm f/4 DO IS USM, @ 400 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 800, 1/1000s, f/5.6
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: no flash
Hand-held
