A community for people who like birds, birdwatching and birding in general!
Feel free to share your photos and other birding-related content here. If a photo you post isn't yours, please credit the original creator! Additionally, it would be appreciated if the location of the sighting and a date were given when a photo or question is posted. You do not have to give the precise location, something like "Northern Idaho, June 2023" or even "North-Western US, June 2023" suffices.
Reading, UK - today, which rather surprised me to still see a flock of Swallows around. I find them really hard to photo - they notoriously don't land, and fly fast, so this lot of photos is as good as I get.
Canon R6 + RF 800mm, 1/1250s, ISO 100 or 350 for these
Nice shots!
For tac sharp photos you need a much faster shutter speed for these erratic guys, at least 1/2000, possibly even faster.
If you try shooting them again maybe up your ISO a little in favor of your shutter speed.
Since the swallows were back in roughly the same place, and same (decent) light today, I tried with 1/2000s - and got a couple of shots that were clear improvements. E.g.
So, Canon R6 + RF200-800mm lens at full length, F9, ISO 1250, Exposure bias on camera +1 step at the suggested 1/2000s
To give a sense of cropping/distance, that's 296 x 296 pixels from a camera whose full frame is 5472 x 3648
Trying for the photos hand held for twenty minutes or so (with rests) left me with extremely tired arms!