Swallow+Repost

Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)

Quite unexpectedly this swallow allowed me to approach close enough for capture of a detailed image. Previously these fellows persistently just watched me attempt to approach and then took off with their usual high-powered swoop. I soon discovered the reason: his nest was in a hole in a tree about 15 ft. away. I guess he figured if he humored me then I would just go away. He was right.

I find these birds very attractive. Interestingly, in comparison with the beautiful image of this species recently posted by Rich Mayer (http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=145349&CGISESSID=416e8fdf4404a3378cd01bd90ff31a44&u=7317 ) this swallow is very slender. This one must be male? (No fat males, right?)

I decided to take a respite from my manual focus practice. So, this lens system is missing the 1.4 X extender. I found that placing a hoodman on the camera back and using live view did make focus much easier than using the viewfinder. However. I missed so many shots because the bird became tired of posing while I was taking the time to judge sharp focus.

All comments on any apect of all this very welcome.

EOS 7D, EF400 mm, f/5.6: ISO 400, 1/800 s, f/9.0, image is full frame (5184 pixels x 3456 pixels=18 MP), no noise reduction, slight exposure adjustment and sharpening, small distracting branch removed from far right hand side.