One in Two-Hundred Thirty-Two

Mike Warner

As we went over the bridge at Hidden Lake we saw lots of swallows flying low over the water.  Mostly Tree Swallows and Northern Rough-winged Swallows with an occasional Barn Swallow mixed in.  I wanted to get a picture of them in flight but it is practically impossible to focus on them as they weave back and forth, up and down over the stream.  So I did an experiment.  I found a place to shoot where they tended to bank or turn.  I then focused on a branch nearby to get the approximate distance.  I then held the camera away from my face and just manually aimed the camera toward the location I focused on.  Every time a swallow came near that spot I began to shoot.  I couldn’t tell if I was getting anything or not on site so I loaded all the pictures onto my computer at home and searched each frame for a bird.  I took 232 frames and 3 of the images were fair and this one turned out pretty good.  It was an interesting exercise and I think I’ll try it again to see if I’m more successful.