![\"cliff-swallow](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cliff-swallow-99981.jpg\" "\\"cliff-swallow")
<\/a><\/p>\nCliff Swallow<\/p>\n
1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n It finally dawned on me\u00a0that to consistently\u00a0get light under the bird I had to shoot when the sun was very<\/em> low, morning or evening.\u00a0 But when the sun is that low the light is also relatively weak which means higher ISO’s and apertures that\u00a0provide less depth of field.\u00a0 To help mitigate that problem I took off the teleconverter (at times swallows\u00a0can be relatively easy to get close to)\u00a0to give me a little more light, faster shutter speeds and more responsive autofocus.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0And it worked!\u00a0 I got this shot and several others I liked\u00a0on the first morning I tried the new tactics.\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong – swallows in flight are still extremely challenging (on this morning I took about 600 shots to get 3 or 4 I was pleased with) but at least it was now possible<\/em>.\u00a0 Another lesson learned…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ll admit that part of the reason I like this image as well as I do is the degree of\u00a0difficulty involved in getting the shot.\u00a0 Swallows are small and very fast which makes for a\u00a0difficult\u00a0flight subject.\u00a0\u00a0 For years I’ve tried getting sharp, well-lit, frame-filling images of them and failed miserably.\u00a0 My best shots seemed to have one or more of\u00a0 the following\u00a0issues – soft, too small in the frame for good detail, poor head turn or\u00a0no light in the eye.\u00a0 But the most common flaw was poor light on the underside of the bird.\u00a0 So I\u00a0decided to change my tactics – yes, I’m a slow learner at times… Cliff Swallow 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 500 f\/4 It finally dawned on me\u00a0that to consistently\u00a0get light under the bird I had to shoot when the sun was very low, morning or evening.\u00a0 But when the sun is that low the light is also relatively weak which means higher ISO’s and apertures that\u00a0provide less depth of field.\u00a0 To help mitigate that problem I took off the teleconverter (at times swallows\u00a0can be relatively easy to get close to)\u00a0to give me a little more light, faster shutter speeds and more responsive autofocus.\u00a0 \u00a0And it worked!\u00a0 I got this shot and several others I liked\u00a0on the first morning I tried the new tactics.\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong – swallows in flight are still extremely challenging (on this morning I took about 600 shots to get 3 or 4 I was pleased with) but at least it was now possible.\u00a0 Another…<\/p>\n