And you thought that swallows were hard to shoot? Well you can think again…
I have been on a quest to shoot swallows in flight this summer, and my, they are much harder to shoot than fast and agile whippets. After the swallows disappeared to warmer climates, I was looking for a next challenge until my eye caught a little wren hopping along the tree catching insects.
And a challenge I got. I found the little wren even more difficult than a whippet at full speed or a swallow in flight. I just couldn’t get a decent shot of this tiny, elusive bird that hides in the undergrowth, is extremely shy, and moves too fast from hiding place to hiding place. With a fast subject like a swallow, you can practice technique, but if you only ever see the wren for a second or two, now that’s hard to get.
The opportunity came after the first autumn storm when we had thrown broken branches into a large pile beside our cottage. The pile of lichen covered wood, chopped from the broken branches, proved to be a heaven for a pair of elusive wrens with the insects in abundance. With a lot of patience, I managed to get these images that I am quite chuffed with.
These images again show the quality that my 70-200mm lens and 2x converter delivers wide open and at a high ISO (400mm, 1/200, f5.6, ISO 800).