Barn swallows - 2010 phase 3

[Doug Kerr]

The third sitting of 2010 in our barn swallow nest is underway, with only two eggs this time. (The first two phases had 1 and 6, respectively.)

Douglas A. Kerr: Barn swallows - 2010, phase 3 - les oeufs​

I had a problem getting the flash exposure down to where it needed to be - at each round, the parents build the nest wall higher, and now I don't have a lot of standoff distance available under the patio ceiling. I may actually have to put an attenuator on the popup flash head.

The framing in this shot is also not really good - we had a few technical glitches, and in the course of dealing with them I ended up with the ball head not aimed the right way.

We use a Manfrotto 685B monopod with a Manfrotto 484RC2 ball head as our "boom" for this work. We shoot the Powershot SX110 IS remotely from our laptop, using Breeze PSRemote. It provides Live View as well as postshot review.

I handle the boom, and Carla directs and fires.

We have to be fairly speedy, as the birds have an effective paparazzi interdiction program, with plenty of gumbas to be called in as needed. There are probably 100 barn swallows within calling range. I suppose certain of them are assigned as "first out" at any given time. They seem to have a very elaborate civil infrastructure.

I actually wear a riot-police style facemask just in case, although I don't think they'd actually take a bite. (When they buzz me, they rarely get closer than about 2 inches.) I bought it at Loewe's. "Gonna do some work with your shaper, Mr. Kerr?" "No, Terri, not exactly."

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

The third sitting of 2010 in our barn swallow nest is underway, with only two eggs this time. (The first two phases had 1 and 6, respectively.)

Douglas A. Kerr: Barn swallows - 2010, phase 3 - les oeufs​

I had a problem getting the flash exposure down to where it needed to be - at each round, the parents build the nest wall higher, and now I don't have a lot of standoff distance available under the patio ceiling. I may actually have to put an attenuator on the popup flash head.

The framing in this shot is also not really good - we had a few technical glitches, and in the course of dealing with them I ended up with the ball head not aimed the right way.

We use a Manfrotto 685B monopod with a Manfrotto 484RC2 ball head as our "boom" for this work. We shoot the Powershot SX110 IS remotely from our laptop, using Breeze PSRemote. It provides Live View as well as postshot review.

I handle the boom, and Carla directs and fires.

We have to be fairly speedy, as the birds have an effective paparazzi interdiction program, with plenty of gumbas to be called in as needed. There are probably 100 barn swallows within calling range. I suppose certain of them are assigned as "first out" at any given time. They seem to have a very elaborate civil infrastructure.

I actually wear a riot-police style facemask just in case, although I don't think they'd actually take a bite. (When they buzz me, they rarely get closer than about 2 inches.) I bought it at Loewe's. "Gonna do some work with your shaper, Mr. Kerr?" "No, Terri, not exactly."

Best regards,

Doug

I love the picture. It's so soft and amazingly logical! how great chance and nature is to select such mechanisms for creature survival.

Have you set up your Powershot to shoot RAW? You might be able to recover some of the detail on those wonderful eggs.

As long as the birds produce enough young, just more than those that crash land and or get eaten, the species survives.

Pretty amazing!

Asher

 

[Eric Diller]

gonna be some sweet baby pic's soon!

 

[Don Cohen]

I've been enjoying monitoring your adventures with these guys, Doug.

With respect to too much flash: what settings are you using? I assume your camera as Flash EV Compensation? That should be enough to get things down where you need it. If for some reason, the flash can't squelch fast enough, stop down the aperture, and/or lower the ISO to "up" the requirement for flash energy.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Don,

I assume your camera as Flash EV Compensation? That should be enough to get things down where you need it.

Flash Exposure Compensation will only indicate to the exposure control system that I want lower than the "normal exposure", which means to decrease the flash output to less than what the metering system would normally call for for. But this does not decrease the minimum flash power that is doable, which in this case is too much.

If for some reason, the flash can't squelch fast enough, stop down the aperture, and/or lower the ISO to "up" the requirement for flash energy.

I am using the lowest available ISO sensitivity, but I realize now that I did not manually set the aperture to a small value. I need to try that. I will do some tests today on a "dummy" scene.

The flash head is only about 2.5 inches from the subjects.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Don,

You were of course quite right. By setting the aperture to the smallest available value (f/8.0 on this camera), as well as the lowest ISO sensitivity (ISO 80), I am able to get a reasonable flash exposure at the shortest workable subject distance (the limit there is in fact shadowing of the onboard flash unit's pattern by the lens).

Why that didn't occur to me I have no idea!

Thanks again so much.

Hopefully we will have some baby pix soon.

Best regards,

Doug