For Vito: Swallows in Flight

[geoffs]

Vito, you asked in this topic, Art Shot, for some pictures of swallows flying. Well, I just happen to have some shots of swallows in flight. The pictures are rather poor because of the freaking short reach of my 140mm max focal length camera (darn! I wish I'd realized when I bought this camera that I might want to get into bird photography!), but I got 'em. Here they are, mosaic'ed into one image:

[geoffs]

I should have added that the bottom image is interesting because it was taken just after the swallow had eaten an insect from off of the surface of the water.

Also, these are violet-green swallows, not tree swallows.

[photosbyvito]

oh cool!! thanks geoffs! i love the way these birds fly, just too cool, the shape of their wings are just awesome!

nice captures! i'd be happy to get them in the frame! lol

Vito

[geoffs]

photosbyvito wrote:

nice captures! i'd be happy to get them in the frame! lol

Thanks for looking, vito!

Getting them in the frame wasn't the biggest problem. I just observed them and noticed they were continually flying over the water from the same direction and over the same flight line. As they came in for a "landing" I panned at their speed and snapped a series of shots using the hi speed picture taking mode of my camera.

The biggest problem is not enough focal length and that won't get rectified for awhile.

[photosbyvito]

ok...a question for you, and depending on your answer, a technique i want you to try

when you panned, you used the viewfinder right?

instead of pumping up the ISO to use a fast shutter...try panning with a slower one....it will probably be tough because of their flying style....but i think you can do it, especially since you managed to figure out the flying pattern to take these with...

i've seen some really cool shots of birds that were panned, so their wings and the bg were blurred, but the head was sharp...and then some still cool shots where everything was out of focus, but you could still tell it was a bird, and the head was just a little out of focus from upward and downward motion from beating the wings...

anyway...that would be cool to see your attempts/successes for this technique....i've never tried it, so it's probably alot harder than i think now..but you could pull it off...

Vito

[geoffs]

Vito, these pictures were taken at the lowest ISO I can get on my camera:

Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 4.5
ISO: 50

I could go to smaller aperture to get the slower shutter speed for the kind of effect you are asking me to try for. The problem is that, unless I can walk on water (and that hasn't been done for 2000 years), I'm not going to be able to get close enough to these swallows with my equipment to make it worthwhile. However, once I have the right gear (real soon now, I hope) I will definitely try for some of the effects you are describing.

[photosbyvito]

a digital rebel isn't too expensive now!

Vito

[geoffs]

Don't tempt me (I am thinking about it).

[photosbyvito]

why not? it's a great camera, and pretty cheap (200-300 dollars more than mine was two years ago)

Vito