Barn Swallows, Backgrounds, and Behavior
How many times have you come back from a great field session only to be disappointed with your photos? Sometimes our photos are just ‘blah’ despite getting great subjects, in focus, with great light. Still, there’s no ‘magic’ in the final photo. It seems to have everything, yet it’s not exciting. What’s the deal with that? I have found the magic requires two additional factors: clean backgrounds and behavior. Let’s use a recent trip to my local park, Masterson Station, as an example.
While walking along a trail I found a group of five juvenile Barn Swallows perched in a tree. Every so often the adult would fly in and feed one of the juvenile birds. Exciting, right?!
The first bird I focused on was a juvenile high in the tree. It was the first one I saw and the one the adult seemed to feed the most. I focused on it and got a pretty nice shot.
Barn Swallows. An adult Barn Swallow come in with a mouthful of flies and other insects and feeds it to a juvenile perched on a thin branch. Nikon Z8 with monopod mounted Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/2000 sec, ISO 1800.
In this shot I thought the background bokeh from the light filtering through the tree created a significant distraction. To compensate, I focused on a juvenile perched on a lower branch where there was no sky peeking through the tree and it gave a better perspective on the bird.
Barn Swallow (juvenile). Nikon Z8 with monopod mounted Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 4000.
Much better. I found this background to be far better than what we have in the first photo. I was also able to move in a few feet closer and move slightly to the right to keep dark branches out of the background. While there are different tones of green, there are no significant bright or dark spots to distract the viewer.
When the adult came in to feed the juvenile, all of the birds would, in unison, open their giant mouths. Of course, not every bird got fed but it created a great photo opportunity. Plus, and this is key, it was repetitive so I knew all I had to do was just be patient and wait.
Barn Swallow (juvenile). Nikon Z8 with monopod mounted Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/3200 sec, ISO 4500.
So I kept focus on the juvenile and waiting for the adult to return. Finally, after about 15 minutes of staying extremely extremely still, the adult came in and fed our subject. I held down the shutter and was thrilled to get this shot.
Barn Swallows. Adult feeding a juvenile. Nikon Z8 with monopod mounted Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/2000 sec, ISO 1800.
While the first photo is good, this last photo has the “magic.” Great subjects showing behavior, in focus, good lighting, AND a clean background that doesn’t distract the viewer.
To me, the 15 minutes of waiting and repositioning was very well worth it. Not only does it result in a great shot, but it also provided an opportunity to quietly observe this species and take in more information about their behavior.
In other news…I just saw reports of a Brown Booby at Spring Mill State Park in Indiana. I just booked a campsite for this coming Friday and Saturday. Hopefully the bird will still be there!
Happy birding!
