A Swallow Story

[SoOregon]

Mom oh mom .... where are you ? I'm hungry mom. Feed me!




The rest of the saga: http://heather2.smugmug.com/gallery/176132

[zoomn]

Heather,

Cool shot.

I checked out your gallery. This one works for me because the box is so big and the bird is so small. Like the scale effect.

The shot where you have the mom and baby face to face would look really cool if you cropped it so they looked a little bigger. I like the captions you put on your pictures, very funny!

[SoOregon]

Thanks for your comments. Pretty much all of the pictures were crops. Sometimes when I have so many to do I just give up. I can't remember how far away these nest boxes were to the camera. Actually there are several nest boxes and I've seen them get recycled more than once. These were taken before I got my TL-55 and I think I could a lot closer now but ... no swallows!

[Normcar]

Great photo: super focus of light on the bird's beak, great background blur, sharp, the crop is dynamic with the geometric lines of the house against the organic background and subject. My only problem with this one is that darned knot-hole that seems to be competing with that magnificent little swallow for the stage.

I agree fully with zoomn on the size factor.

Cool stuff.

[geoffs]

Great series of shots, Heather! I love swallows and you've documented parent and young one so well!

[SoOregon]

I'm too late this year to do this project in mind but I'm also very interested in our woodpecker colony, literally outside my back door. We have a line of telephone poles along the street next to my house. On the top of each pole is a carefully drilled out nest. I've made a few photos of this but at the time had to resort to digital zoom to get up there so to speak, http://heather2.smugmug.com/gallery/163622. I'd say we have along the street a dozen or more birds. Right now there is a new clutch in one of the holes. Anyway, I'd like to photograph the number tags on the poles, the families, the action and make up a video slideshow. I want to do some audio recording too which with the FZ10 I could do and later rip the audio track. I love making slide shows, taking digital camera photos and combining them with music ( sometimes my own) and burning a DVD. Fun! :-)

[geoffs]

I hope that you are really able to do the woodpecker project, Heather, as it could turn out very interesting. Those look to be Acorn Woodpeckers which I've never had the opportunity to see in anything but pictures - lucky you!

[aladyforty]

great shot, Ive never seen one of these birds but they sure look demanding:-)