Tree swallows

There is a nature preserve near my home with a great habitat for tree swallows - a lake with many dead snags. I was able to get closer on each successive shot, until I was right next to the snag they were in. These were all taken with a 30D and 400mm f/5.6 and no tripod. All of these photos are uncropped. Can't wait to get a 500mm f/4, think of the possibilities!

Great catch Liz. I saw some last weekend down on Goose Island, but they were flying over the water. Too far and too hight to capture, but I could see what they were.

Nice shots, love the feather detail in #2, #4's great looks like an argument in progress.

Well captured.

Thanks - this particular park is a great place to watch and photograph them. They also seem pretty tame, and very talkative too. I had read that many died after the initial migration, due to a long cold snap and subsequent lack of food, so I was really glad to see many hanging around at this park.

Really Nice shots... I like emm all... whens the 500 coming??

Very nice series! notice how after she tunes him in (pic #4) she moves away from him in #5 , Well done! Beautiful captures.

Very nice, great colours and poses.

Love #4 it looks like Mrs swallow is having a word to Mr swallow. Great series.

Very nice series Liz. It looks like you had great lighting and sky as well.

Beautiful shots... and they're not cropped? Have you played with them since posting these? I bet you've gotten some great pictures after PS... Gorgeous birds.

All great shots. I really like #1 as its a bit out the ordinary to see a shot of birds where the birds are about 1% of the image but it works well as they are sharp and well exposed. Tiny shame about the branch cutting the left one up in that shot tho.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Actually I didn't post the whole series of the swallow squabble, swallow #1 (on the left) was sitting by itself, then #2 landed, #1 yells at #2 a couple of times, #2 finally yells back, then #1 moves over. This all happens within less than 30 seconds. It's 8 photos so I just selected a few of them to post. It would be interesting to know the genders - it could be two males, the first protecting his snag, or a mated pair having a spat, or an intruder of the opposite sex, or two females. Too bad we can't tell!

I was thinking the 500mm would be a purchase I'd make in the fall before my Alaska trip, but now I'm getting really antsy to have it because there are so many great things to photograph during the summer! So who knows, maybe in the next month or two.

I do have to hand it to the 400 f/5.6, when you can get close and have enough light for a high shutter speed, it can produce some great results. These photos were all shot at 1/800 sec. I always shoot in raw and manual exposure mode, convert in CaptureOne, then minor saturation and sharpness boosting in Paint Shop Pro. Here are some crops of the last photo:

50% crop:

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