Swallows in flight

[coastalconn]

I have been trying to get these little bastards in flight forever. If you have tried to catch these swallows in flight you will know just how hard these shots are.. All shot at 1/2000th sec which still left a little motion blur in the tips... Comments welcome...

1

Tree Swallow flight 1 by krisinct, on Flickr

2

Tree Swallow flight 2 by krisinct, on Flickr

3

Tree Swallow flight 3 by krisinct, on Flickr

4 I think the little guy on the beach watching is pretty funny

Tree Swallow wars with an onlooker by krisinct, on Flickr

5 a bit too much of a crop, but I like the baby flying up to momma

Tree Swallow wars by krisinct, on Flickr

 

[cgipson1]

Nice.. those babies are FAST! and lots of high G maneuvers! Nice shooting!

 

[mwild]

Is this the same kind of bird? I shot them a while back, knew they were swallows but wasn't sure what kind. They like to dive-bomb heads eh? I was getting too close to their nest I think. # 4 cracks me up! What a little cutie.


Swallow by ♠GollyWild, on Flickr

 

[coastalconn]

Thanks Charlie !

Mwild...Yup.. Tree Swallows I believe. Nice shot...

 

[WesternGuy]

CC, great shots. I have tried to catch them in flight and have had no luck at all. They are very hard to follow, which makes your results even better. I will just have to go out and try again.

WesternGuy

 

[baturn]

Wow! These are all great, as usual. I'm still struggling with in flights of much slower birds, so have not even tried this. Very well done!

 

[KenC]

Great shots. We get chimney swifts here, flying around at dusk eating the mosquitoes, and I can't imagine trying to get good shots of them.

 

[sm4him]

Tree swallows, barn swallows, purple martins...all those little buggers are just LIGHTNING fast, plus they don't move predictably like a great big raptor or even most of the songbirds--they flit and dart and dive, so it's nearly impossible to even pick one and try to track it until you get focus.

Baturn: In my opinion, swallows actually make GREAT practice opportunities--you may not get any great shots of them, but after you spend a while trying to track these speedsters, it'll seem a lot easier to track the slower birds!

Kris, these are simply amazing! I only *thought* I'd gotten a couple of decent pictures of swallows, until I saw these...
I'm especially fond of #1, 3 and 5.
Also #2.
And 4.

 

[leighthal]

Great skill capturing these super sonic birds.

 

[DarkShadow]

Nice shots kris.Amazing how fast shutter speeds need to be sometimes.

 

[Stevepwns]

Number 4, the little guy on the ground is like... Hey what are you guys doing.....lol Nice set