Barn swallow and RWBB in flight and more!

jeff lapoint

Haven't posted much wildlife stuff of late since we were in Japan for a bit (thanks too all who wandered up to the Journeys forum to check out my travel shots ) and I have been buried under BS:bigbs and paperwork for our new home in Syracuse. I was feeling pretty angry today and decided to blow a few hundred shutter clicks on swallows in flight as a tension reliever. Here's a few shots from today and from about 2 weeks ago that I never got around to posting.

Hand holding the 300 is always a tad bit of a workout after 20 minutes or so, but it is a fantastic way to kill some stress.

RWBB posing on a reed



RWBB in flight (I swear there is some red in there somewhere:dunno)


And another



my first Baltimore Oriole (I think...I'm sure the ID police will be out on this one:rofl)



Babies from a few weeks ago


My first indigo bunting



The one halfway decent barn swallow in flight shot of the day:wink.


At the rate all this paperwork and taxes are getting to me I'm sure I'll need to be back out there again tomorrow:huh

Thanks for the look:thumb

-j

riddim_maker

Nice variety Jeff
I like all of them, especially the swallow
seems like we tend to excel when under pressure/stress
Isn't photography a great diversion?

Maestro

Wait. You were feeling a bit angry and you tried to get swallow BIFs? scratch Nice shots. I like the Oriole shot the best though.

jeff lapoint

riddim_maker wrote:

Nice variety Jeff
I like all of them, especially the swallow
seems like we tend to excel when under pressure/stress
Isn't photography a great diversion?

Thanks Russ. I'm built to be better under stress, but I need to see results in front of my eyes Guess I choose the right job...

I keep telling my wife that photography is cheaper than therapy
I just need to find a way of diverting her from the CC bill!

-j

bfjr

Yep know what blowing off shutter clicks can do for ya !!

Dig your new Avatar

Ann McRae

Great shots - great way to calm oneself.

One question, what does your avatar mean?

bfjr wrote:

Yep know what blowing off shutter clicks can do for ya !!

Dig your new Avatar

jeff lapoint

Maestro wrote:

Wait. You were feeling a bit angry and you tried to get swallow BIFs? scratch Nice shots. I like the Oriole shot the best though.

Thanks Stephen. Yeah, its soothing to try something so difficult (at least I think it is:D). Keeps my expectations properly calibrated

Thusie

Cool on the swallow..very, very fast

Nice shots

jeff lapoint

bfjr wrote:

Yep know what blowing off shutter clicks can do for ya !!

Dig your new Avatar

Thanks! I knew a fellow 300 2.8 toting machine gunner would understand

I had a better animated avatar, but I just cant get it to work. I checked how to do it on the FAQ, but that just leads you to a 150 page long post on a motorcycle forum.

-j

jeff lapoint

Ann McRae wrote:

Great shots - great way to calm oneself.

One question, what does your avatar mean?

Thanks so much Ann!

The avatar is just a goofy medical joke and it shows someone being chased by a huge needle/syringe.

jeff lapoint

Thusie wrote:

Cool on the swallow..very, very fast

Nice shots

Thanks! i'm still looking for the perfect spot to shot these guys around here. Sure is fun trying though:D

dbaker1221

great BIF's ..

Ric Grupe

This is more than "half-way decent"!



I once shot about a gig trying to get a decent shot of a swallow and quit! Too fast for me.

Harryb

Terrific shots Jeff.

I always used photography as an escape from the "J" word before I retired. Concentrating on getting the shots never failed to overcome the momentary stress I was feeling.

gluwater

Great stuff Jeff! I still haven't processed anything from the Indigo bunting day, or anyother time since then. I've been having fun shooting when I get a couple free minutes and I'll worry about processing them later. I still don't know how you get those swallows in flight.

jeff lapoint

dbaker1221 wrote:

great BIF's ..

Thanks Dave. Just about the only thing keeping me sane during this move!

jeff lapoint

Ric Grupe wrote:

This is more than "half-way decent"!



I once shot about a gig trying to get a decent shot of a swallow and quit! Too fast for me.

Thanks Ric! I generally shoot way more than a gig and pray for one or two usable shots. Most of the time I get skunked, but every now and again "the sun shines on a dog's rear end" as my father says from time to time.

jeff lapoint

Harryb wrote:

Terrific shots Jeff.

I always used photography as an escape from the "J" word before I retired. Concentrating on getting the shots never failed to overcome the momentary stress I was feeling.

So true! Like really, really expensive valiumI always thought I owed you a beer for all the help you give everyone around here, but now that you're linking to deadsquirrel.com we need to make it two

-j