Swallows in Flight

Hi All

Thought id'e share some more Welcome Swallows in flight I thought are worthy of showing.
All taken with E-M1 + 40-150 pro + TC.
View at 100% for a better look.

Enjoy!

juvenile

juvenile 2

juvenile 3

All beautiful! Thanks for posting.

Maggie

Super shots....well done!

Incredible shots; beautiful birds for sure, and each shot pretty sharp.  So, besides a fast shutter and moderately high ISOs, please tell us how you made these fantastic shots.  I have tried catching swallows lots of times and never, never was able to photograph even one bird as sharp as yours...and those efforts were with top-of-the line DSLRs and lenses.  The swallows are sooooo fast!

Cheers,

Gary

when I open them up I realised just how very good these are.  While we all await the two big lenses I start to think that maybe this a very workable solution.  Can you give an example of the level of any cropping that you did on these.

By any chance, the red dot sight thing was used? If not, how on earth can you follow them and even keep them on the EVF sight? I shot pelicans and they are 20 times bigger than your swallow. It is just amazing Vass!

Amazing for the setup used. Really impressive considering, as many others have said, swallows are far from easy to catch when in flight! Thanks...

Really nice!

You are setting thebar so high with you small bird pix that I am getting to the point that I will be demanding that you capture them with an insect in flight between the tips of their beaks. LOL.

Absolutely superb captures not only demonstrating the ability of the camera/lens combo but the fantastic skills of the photographer.

Very well done Vass, you have set the bar very high!

Now kindlt share some of your secrets/techniques! 

Cheers

Dennis

Most are crops from full sized images pretty much. I might of just downsized a few a tad to get a nice 4:3 or 3:4 pixel number (let's say 3200x2400 from 3267x2450). I also keep all originals and raws incase I want to sell any images later. All were from jpegs too in this series, I would rarely touch a raw unless I wanted to get something better out of a slightly bad photo but yeah I keep all my raws too.

It's a workable solution but if the birds are shy or do not get close enough u will want more reach as I do for many birds and I also would prefer more reach as its harder to follow a bird closer to you than further away from my experience. You must follow the bird with quicker faster movement when it's closer.

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

when I open them up I realised just how very good these are. While we all await the two big lenses I start to think that maybe this a very workable solution. Can you give an example of the level of any cropping that you did on these.

I used the EVF for the 1st, 3rd last and the 3 juvenile shots. The rest i think i used the red dot for most of them.
I'm actually pretty interested to see what the Optical simulator for the viewfinder will be like in the upcoming firmware. I am pretty sure it will be like a live view all the time. I find with the red dot my hands can get shaky at times due to my head or torso not supporting the camera. Solution could be to put a gun type handle but then I would feel like I'm going to scare people or I might become a target lol. As a sighter i find the red dot not to helpful for myself but if u have trouble aiming ur camera on target it is very handy. I'm pretty used to aiming my lens on target perfectly from practise. It's just like aiming a rifle for me with a scope, u just develop a natural abilty to do so.

joeletx wrote:

By any chance, the red dot sight thing was used? If not, how on earth can you follow them and even keep them on the EVF sight? I shot pelicans and they are 20 times bigger than your swallow. It is just amazing Vass!

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3906696?page=2

GDB wrote:

Incredible shots; beautiful birds for sure, and each shot pretty sharp. So, besides a fast shutter and moderately high ISOs, please tell us how you made these fantastic shots. I have tried catching swallows lots of times and never, never was able to photograph even one bird as sharp as yours...and those efforts were with top-of-the line DSLRs and lenses. The swallows are sooooo fast!

Cheers,

Gary

hehe don't temp me Geoffrey

Hen3ry wrote:

You are setting thebar so high with you small bird pix that I am getting to the point that I will be demanding that you capture them with an insect in flight between the tips of their beaks. LOL.

hehe read all my previous swallow threads started
The real secret is knowing your subjects, following as best you can, practise and pulling the trigger instantly. I'm still learning and trying new things so what I'm doing now could change anytime.
Im honestly 50/50 about the red dot for swallows atm. Everything else I still prefer the EVF as I can see what i'm framing and how

Denjw wrote:

Absolutely superb captures not only demonstrating the ability of the camera/lens combo but the fantastic skills of the photographer.

Very well done Vass, you have set the bar very high!

Now kindlt share some of your secrets/techniques!

Cheers

Dennis