Catching a Swallow in Flight
This is a photo of a subject that took quite a few attempts to catch. Swallows in flight are notoriously difficult to photograph without some sort of automatic triggering device. Their swift, erratic flight means that, more often than not, any attempt will end with nothing more than pictures of the sky with an occasional blur.
This photo was taken on a day of strong but steady wind in Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. A flock of swallows was hunting above a stream, then returning to a small tree. Individual swallows would approach a branch from downwind, and momentarily come to a near halt just before landing. It was in this brief instant before they landed that I found it possible to track them well enough to obtain good photographs.