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House Martins

Discussion

12 replies
Posted by Rob Howard on July 25, 2008 at 7:45 PM
House Martins
Canon EOS 1D MKII, 300/2.8, 1.4x conv, 420mm, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 200, RAW, RSE, CS2, hand held, vehicle as hide, 15% crop.

Hi All,

Landscape head was left at home this morning !! I was out at dawn to catch up with a new pair of Barn Owl's I have found taking food back to somewhere, looks like it is a cavity in a massive old Oak. Also found a pair of Little Owl's, was a real happy hour!
Then after that me and the farmer had a quick chat about some House Martins he had seen collecting mud, I had to think for a minute as the BO's were showing really well but I have very little on House Martins. I had to cross a Sheep field to get to them, they were by a massive puddle obviously collectling mud to build or repair nests. Was a really good morning!!

All comments welcome

Regards

Rob


:biggrin: :biggrin: :smile: :smile:
Posted by John Robinson on July 26, 2008 at 6:42 AM
Cracking shot Rob, and interesting positioning in the frame too. Maybe a little more central ?? -not sure. Nice though.
JohnR
Posted by Matt Doggett on July 26, 2008 at 7:25 AM
Nice point of view, and good behavioural shot. I like this :biggrin:

Cheers
Matt
Posted by Mark Fellowes on July 26, 2008 at 7:54 AM
Very nice image, and great exposure, with no lost detail.

:toast:

Mark
Posted by Andy Astbury on July 26, 2008 at 9:30 AM
What great little birds Rob - nicely exposed and tack sharp :wavey:

Something about the crop unnerves me slightly - I'd be interested to see the missing 15% :wink:
Posted by Rob Howard on July 26, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Hi Guys,

Cropped a bit off of the left as there was a big lump of stone next to the bird, I thought it looked very distracting, could have cloned it but felt it would have looked obvious.

Any House Martins fans spot some of their hit song titles in my post? Bit of a cryptic posting for you :biggrin: :biggrin:

Regards

Rob
Posted by Nigel Blake on July 26, 2008 at 11:34 AM
I really hated The Housemartins (and Beautiful south) they always seemed to be grinning themselves to death! but I did note "Think for a minute", "Me and the farmer", "Happy hour" "Build", and "Sheep"....... I reckon you could have squeezed "Step outside" in there too.
The picture is OK as well, a bit more work on the levels would add a bit of "pop" to it and a slightly lower POV would have worked well, did they "sit on a fence" at all?
Posted by PhilH on July 26, 2008 at 4:40 PM
Wonderfull.... it does need a bit more space below, or crop from the top for a pano format.

:toast: :toast: :toast:
Posted by Magnus Hird on July 27, 2008 at 7:18 AM
Really nice behavioural shot, something different from flight / perch shots. Links the subject well with the nests we know them for. Never knew they had feathered legs either :smile:
Posted by Rob Ashton on July 27, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Superb shot showing good behavior.

You just are a boastfull git though :rolleyes: :biggrin: BOs, LOs and House Martins in one morning Sheesh.

Rob :toast: :toast: :biggrin:
Posted by Andy Shepherd on July 27, 2008 at 11:07 AM


Cool capture Rob , love those little feathery legs :toast:

Andy... :smile:
Posted by Alan Bryant on July 27, 2008 at 3:36 PM
All it needs Rob is some off the right IMO.

Other than that its superb :toast: :toast:
Posted by Colin Crowdey on July 28, 2008 at 11:02 AM
great shot, love those birds. Viewpoint is about right for me, eye level always makes for cracking shots and this one is no exception

Colin