Don't Lose Your Head
Barn swallow feeding her fledgling on Horsepen Bayou
This section of Horsepen Bayou is a shallow backwater with no current and a lot of vegetation, mostly islands of bulrushes that in recent weeks have harbored a variety of birds including songbirds, purple gallinules, least bitterns, herons and egrets of all stripes, tons of red-winged blackbirds, and a smattering of swallows. On this morning, the action was all barn swallows, "action" being the operative word. They fly in a very erratic pattern, very acrobatic, and they NEVER slow down for an instant, thus they are a real challenge to shoot.
So when I rounded a bulrush island and saw three fledglings side by side on an exposed reed, I immediately began firing away, hoping to get a clean image before they had a chance to seek the safety of the thicket. Only instead of zipping off, they sat immobile until in unison their mouths became unhinged and opened bigger than their heads, like yellow antenna dishes tracking a fast-moving satellite that turned out to be a parent delivering food. Then for the next half hour or so I got to watch that scene unfold over and over at about one-minute intervals, producing this series of images and another group that I am still culling and cleaning up.
But what is deceiving about this is the appearance that the action slows down and is observable. Not so. Only when I increased the shutter speed to one thousandth and higher and fired steadily at a full eight frames per second as soon as the antenna dishes unfolded was I able to truly witness what is displayed in this shot. When I lowered the camera and watched in real time, it was only a blur. They NEVER slowed down for an instant. Nature is amazing.
Don't Lose Your Head
Barn swallow feeding her fledgling on Horsepen Bayou
This section of Horsepen Bayou is a shallow backwater with no current and a lot of vegetation, mostly islands of bulrushes that in recent weeks have harbored a variety of birds including songbirds, purple gallinules, least bitterns, herons and egrets of all stripes, tons of red-winged blackbirds, and a smattering of swallows. On this morning, the action was all barn swallows, "action" being the operative word. They fly in a very erratic pattern, very acrobatic, and they NEVER slow down for an instant, thus they are a real challenge to shoot.
So when I rounded a bulrush island and saw three fledglings side by side on an exposed reed, I immediately began firing away, hoping to get a clean image before they had a chance to seek the safety of the thicket. Only instead of zipping off, they sat immobile until in unison their mouths became unhinged and opened bigger than their heads, like yellow antenna dishes tracking a fast-moving satellite that turned out to be a parent delivering food. Then for the next half hour or so I got to watch that scene unfold over and over at about one-minute intervals, producing this series of images and another group that I am still culling and cleaning up.
But what is deceiving about this is the appearance that the action slows down and is observable. Not so. Only when I increased the shutter speed to one thousandth and higher and fired steadily at a full eight frames per second as soon as the antenna dishes unfolded was I able to truly witness what is displayed in this shot. When I lowered the camera and watched in real time, it was only a blur. They NEVER slowed down for an instant. Nature is amazing.