Little Wings

[kaneohebud]

Great work, Christina. Those tree swallows are VERY DIFFICULT to catch in flight. Beautiful birds!

[Brownbear]

Thank you Marie. Truly appreciated.

Wow, WOW, WOW!!!!

These are awesome!!! I love your composite!

Marie

[Brownbear]

Thank you Bud. Yes, indeed I learned just that. But they are such beautiful little birds so I will be visiting them again.

Great work, Christina. Those tree swallows are VERY DIFFICULT to catch in flight. Beautiful birds!

[Loose Canon]

Little Wing is one of my favorite all time tunes Christina!

These shots rock. I love the bit of blur in the wings. I love the lighting and the backlit wings when they angle into the sun. Okay, so they might be cropped a little tight cutting off the wing tips, and # 2 maybe if the face and eye were lightened a bit, and what do I know anyway…

But I know this for sure.

You’re comp is right on the $$. Not seeing the originals I can’t tell how you did it. Each bird looks great and no weird stuff in the background that I can see. If it is really this good in the full res I would have done a tighter crop here for sure.

And if this is your first comp Christina, congratulations!

Not only on the quality but the skill to put it together.

Both the vision and the technical aspects are inspiring! You're there!

Very cool! The Sky is the limit now!

[Brownbear]

Hi Terry,

I just Googled the song Little Wing, as I've never heard of it. It's a beautiful song. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for your kind comments, and as always your encouragement.

I used a layer mask to merge the two images (something that you helped me understand how to do a few months ago)... I simply erased the sky around the other two birds which was a different colour because the light was slightly different even though the two shots were less than a second apart. The hardest part was erasing the sky between the toes of the birds webbed feet.

The birds only filled 20-30% of the frame (best guess) so cropping so that much is not good for the image quality and there is too much shadow on the birds faces etc, and I can see funny bits in the blue sky etc. I think I could print a wee little postcard but that is it.

Here is the crop...



Nevertheless I was delighted to capture these little guys in flight, and next time around I hope they will fly closer to me. Perhaps I will collect some insects and toss them into the air while singing the song "Little Wing!"

Little Wing is one of my favorite all time tunes Christina!

These shots rock. I love the bit of blur in the wings. I love the lighting and the backlit wings when they angle into the sun. Okay, so they might be cropped a little tight cutting off the wing tips, and # 2 maybe if the face and eye were lightened a bit, and what do I know anyway…

But I know this for sure.

You’re comp is right on the $$. Not seeing the originals I can’t tell how you did it. Each bird looks great and no weird stuff in the background that I can see. If it is really this good in the full res I would have done a tighter crop here for sure.

And if this is your first comp Christina, congratulations!

Not only on the quality but the skill to put it together.

Both the vision and the technical aspects are inspiring! You're there!

Very cool! The Sky is the limit now!

[Nancy Moran G]

I started reading your post but on my IPad I couldn't see your image yet. When I saw you were going after Tree Swallows, I thought, 'good luck'! They are very hard from what I hear.
But, wow, they're great, congrats! Everyone else pretty much covered my thoughts.
Nancy

[Kyle]

Kyle... It is just the background in #4 that I find a little distracting and a more apt description would be not very pretty, and only because of the dark shadowy parallel line in the background, which I think is the shoreline.

I see what you mean. I find that the bird is so striking and the pose so strong that the background doesn't detract much. It might be a little nicer without it but it's still a great image either way.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Nancy and Kyle!

Nancy, I found these birds very difficult to capture in flight. As soon as the rainy weather clears up I will be trying again, with the goal of getting closer (more detail) and filling the frame more.

Kyle, I'm glad you see that. One of my goals is to improve my backgrounds and also my use of light by picking an area beforehand.

[bnnrcn]

I like the crop

[Quentin88]

Great pictures, the last time I tried to shot swallows I used 1/4000 SS and the shot was still blurry =(

[Brownbear]

Thank you Pellegrino. You should see all the shots with wee specks of the swallows, or just tails or feet, empty sky and water that I managed to capture. (:

Great pictures, the last time I tried to shot swallows I used 1/4000 SS and the shot was still blurry =(

[Rita]

Nice shots with good detail. These little ones are hard to get. Good job.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Rita!

Nice shots with good detail. These little ones are hard to get. Good job.