One of our regular weekend routines is a visit to the library bookshop in Kuirau Park. There is a pond adjacent and I always keep an eye out for the birds. A recent morning revealed a surfeit of swallows in an endless parade dipping to a hatch of aquatic insects. Unusually, I hadn’t brought my camera as a backlog of images was making me reluctant to capture any more new ones (not a good approach to utilising opportunity). Watching the birds I was tempted to dash home and collect my camera but the morning had other more important priorities.
Later in the day the temptation to return was too high despite the possibility that the hatch had ended. Edin and I went back with our cameras and as soon as we stopped the car we could see the swallows still darting over the pond. What followed was the most frantic and consistent opportunity to photograph swallows that I have ever had. Being later in the day the light was changing and offered us a variety of lighting opportunities. This video clip gives an idea of the number of birds that were continually lapping the pond.
The end result was more 1000’s of images than I will admit to which has taken a bit of time to edit down but the result is a lovely addition to my archive of Warou/ Welcome swallow images that has given me a lot of pleasure.
There was a time that any sharp swallow in flight image was a success. Higher frame rates and subject recognition and tracking with mirrorless cameras has made this easier but it will never be easy due to the rapid erratic flight. My Nikon Z8 and Nikkor Z 400mm f4.5 VR S is a lovely light combination for tracking the swallows. The only drawback being the battery life compared to a Nikon Z9. In the cold conditions I used the 2 batteries I had brought. Reviewing any images I was expecting a lot more blurred ones to bin but was amazed at the number of sharply focussed photos I have to sift through to decide on processing candidates. The varied lighting and lovely backgrounds for the 400mm prime yielded some of my nicest swallow images to date.
