Recently, I have learned that I make the best pictures when I am totally absorbed in the process of observing and interacting with subjects that fascinate me.
I have always loved birds, and when an opportunity came up this weekend to photograph the return of cliff swallows to Southern Oregon I jumped at it. Cliff swallows are remarkably fast and skilled in flight. They can fly at full speed and then stop and turn at will. These are industrious birds that live in colonies of more than 100.
To capture the swallows in flight depended on a lot of luck. 1/8,000th of a second at f/4 is the best I could do in order to freeze the motion of the wings as the birds swooped in over me. About 1 in 50 pictures seemed even close to usable, but that's the fun part of making images.
Hundreds of swallows circled above the house they were building their nest on. Many were just waiting their turn to deliver a tiny bit of mud for the nest.
Every photographic essay must have visual variety, which means the images vary from wide to tight. Every choice you make in the picture making process must be done deliberately.
I like this image because it has a great deal of information about the story being told. With the mud nests almost finished, the swallows will know begin to lay eggs.
