Lessons in Swift photography

"They've made it again, Which means the globe's still working, the Creation's still waking refreshed, our summer's still all to come" from Swifts by Ted Hughes


Every summer I try and take a good shot of a Common Swift and every year so far I've not been satisfied with my efforts.

With an hour to spare this afternoon I popped into a busy Titchwell Marsh and underneath a grey sky I spent some time trying to photograph the low flying Swifts and the shot shown here was my best effort. The technique that I have adopted is to reduce my 100 - 400 lens to 300mm, put it on the closer focusing and panning settings, over expose by 2/3 of a stop and then expect to delete an awful lot of what I take.

Image above is of a Common Sift over the Titchwell Marsh reedbed today.