{"id":23893,"date":"2015-08-10T22:36:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T21:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/?p=23893"},"modified":"2015-08-10T22:36:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T21:36:42","slug":"catching-swallows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/catching-swallows\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Swallows"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my regular photographic challenges (self-imposed) is photographing swallows (or swifts<\/a>) while they swoop over water or across fields. Mostly I walk away with no success at all, but in the last week I’ve managed a few that while far from perfect are at least usable. The difficulties are many: keeping the bird in the frame while it speeds across the lens; keeping the lens in focus and relatively steady; having a fast enough shutter speed; and capturing the bird while it’s facing in an acceptable direction (youu don’t really want back views).<\/p>\n

As I said, these ain’t perfect, but hey are among my better efforts. I’ll start with one from last week diving over the pond and – double bonus points – with its beak wide open!<\/p>\n

\"Swallow<\/a>
Swallow diving over Falmer Pond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rest are from today, when the light was decidedly iffy. The ISO was ramped up to 1600 as getting anything usable depends on speed. Ths is actually a fledgling, but it can still motor!<\/p>\n

\"Swallow<\/a>
Fledgling swallow in flight over fields at Falmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Swallow<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Swallow<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Swallow<\/a>
Another one with mouth open! More bonus points \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To make up for the roughness of those, one ‘proper’ photo, also from today. I took quite a few of this group of ducks passing the time of day, but this is the pick.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>
Three ducks at Falmer Pond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my regular photographic challenges (self-imposed) is photographing swallows (or swifts) while they swoop over water or across fields. Mostly I walk away with no success at all, but in the last week I’ve managed a few that while far from perfect are at least usable. The difficulties are many: keeping the bird in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980,989],"tags":[150,1165],"class_list":["post-23893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-ducks","tag-swallow","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t