Incredible bird photography

Yesterday a picture of a swift appeared on my Twitter timeline. As most tweets contain a photo, that fact in itself is not particularly interesting, although I suspect that not everyone is familiar with the swift, a summer visitor with its beautiful scythe like wings. Famed for allegedly being able to sleep on the wing, and rarely coming to ground, you know it's summer when you see these birds flying high chasing insects.

No, what really struck me was the photograph itself. It's an astounding shot of a swift heading straight towards the photographer, it's wings like razors.  A copy of the image taken by Somerset based photographer Carl Bovis (@CarlBovisNature, website) is below, but go to the tweet link above and open the image for a full view.

Swift - Credit Carl Bovis (@CarlBovisNature, https://linktr.ee/carlbovis)

As a very amateur photographer and nature lover myself, I'm absolutely taken aback by this image on a number of levels. Firstly taking pictures of any bird in flight is a feat in itself, evidenced by the number of times I've shot some lovely branches of a tree but no bird! To get your camera settings right to get a clear, sharp shot AND manage to get the bird in the frame takes incredible skill, and no doubt patience (and you have to have the right gear). Carl undoubtedly has all this plus bags of experience taking these sort of shots. Secondly, swifts generally fly quite high - I did tweet Carl and ask him about this, and he graciously replied quite quickly telling me that on this occasion the bird was quite low - nevertheless a head on shot of a swift must be quite rare! And thirdly, to capture this bird so precisely head on makes this image all the more stunning. Its wings are like knife edges and in the image you can immediately sense the manoeuvrability and speed of the bird.

Intrigued, I immediately started following Carl on Twitter and looked back through his timeline. The images he takes of birds are quite remarkable. They put my feeble efforts of a wildlife to shame, but I guess I take comfort in that I love taking photographs however they come out, and eventually, with enough practice I may one day take that real "keeper" shot!

I've also jumped straight in to buy Carl's book because if this one image is anything to go by I'm going to love leafing through his book to see the photos and learn more about how, when and where he takes these amazing shots.

Finally, and on a serious note, it appears that someone used (whether intentionally or unintentionally) a photo of Carl's on a Twitter post without crediting him. The net result is that many of those viewing that tweet believe the poster to be the photographer especially as their profile picture showed them holding a camera. Unlike many photographers, Carl does not watermark his photos, but to use his or indeed anyone else's images without crediting the original photographer is a big no no.

Twitter, as I've mentioned on many occasions before, can be a pretty unpleasant place at time, but when you find jewels like this, and are able to communicate directly with people that until that day you'd never heard of before, it shows the platform can be used for. It certainly made my day.

If any of nature, photography or birds are your thing, give him a follow. You won't regret it!

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives