Which bird is this?

I thought it was the creed of even pro photographers! I remember reading, decades ago, and back in the days of expensive film, the advice to never expect more than one third of one's pics to be worth keeping.


I recently asked a pro about this very problem. His reply, "My speciality is taking pictures of musicians at concerts, with all the particular lighting problems that poses: I might not be able take any better pic of a bird on a branch than you can!"

Nick my prayers seem to have been answered in this one

Gorgeous Photo!!!!

Fantastic, Raptor.

I haven't been paying daily visits to the photogallery for a couple of weeks... must catch up.

Great pictures Raptor!

Spot/center weighted metering definitely helps. If you don't have spot metering, like in my Canon Rebel XS , try partial metering, almost the same thing by another name. Also, cropping, etc..., help greatly!

Another feature one may want to use to photograph moving objects, is AI Servo (Canon DSLRs), I think it's called 'Continuous Focus' in Nikon DSLRs. This is for DSLRs, and if you have the AI Servo feature or equivalent, possibly called something else in your P&S, that's great.

What is this cutie pie called.

Is it a kind of Swift? I knew only of Maruti Swift (the car) but realized that there is a bird by the same name too.

To me, swallows and swifts are very similar, and I don't know how to tell the difference. I am sure that to people like Rwe and Raptor, I just said something very ridiculous!

Anyway, according to my book, it is not a swift, and searching for that red head, I'm thinking that it is a Wire-Tailed Swallow. Did it have two very thin "wire" tail feathers?

Many thanks Nick, it looks exactly like the same bird minus the wire! I wonder what is the mystery here. And I was not even aware that there are birds called Swallow!

Nick on more search this Wired Tailed Swallow has no wire too!

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H e r e ' s .. a n o t h e r .. p i c t u r e.
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RWe many thanks. And I goofed up! I probably need glasses now! When I saw the bird, I didn't notice the wires even then! But then I almost always try to see everything from behind the camera lens.

But is it so easy to take out my (c) Mridula D? I thought I was keeping it close to the picture and it can't be cropped out! How did you do it? Photoshop?

Oh! I hadn't noticed he did that!

Yes, I'm afraid that it is easy, and you don't need anything as expensive as photoshop (Gimp is a free alternative to PS, although still quite complex). There is a rubber-stamp tool, with which you just copy nearby bits of background over what you don't want to see. You can take out unwanted telegraph poles, wires, imperfections on scanned old pictures, wedding rings*, even whole people, let alone a bit of text. Your signature is like a lock on the door: it keeps most people out, but will not stop the determined and experienced thief. Don't let this put you off using the signature!

What's more, the rubber stamp is the amateur's method: there are, I'm told, more sophisticated methods.




*google "You suck at photoshop" for a series of instructional and funny short videos on photoshop, its capabilities, and how to use it.

Ridiculous? Not really! I also thought it has to be either a Swift or a Swallow.

Swifts are superficially similar to swallows but are easily distinguised by their scythe-shaped wings. Swifts spend the entire day flying at high altitudes and they come to rest only at nest and roost sites and are virtually never seen perched. They cling to vertical surfaces at nest and roost sites.