Birds on Arroyo Del Valle Trail (Part 3) - Pleasanton, CA

Hello guys! If you followed me here in the past, you would know I used to walk on Arroyo Del Valle Trail in Pleasanton, CA all the time, but I've neglected to do so for at least a year or two now. I have went back walking on that trail on a new segment I have never been before, so I hope you enjoy the shots! As for new guys, Arroyo Del Valle Trail is a really long walking trail here in Pleasanton, CA that stretches a great distance. Many locals go there to exercise and take daily walks. It is also a trail filled with photographic opportunities as you will see in the coming blog posts. The photos will be split into several blog posts, and will also be split into scenery and bird photos. I have also shot many bird photos while on this walk. I really hope you enjoy.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best Pleasanton, CA photos for 2015, use this link. To view my best 2015 bird photos, use this link. To see all of my 2015 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link.

Arroyo Del Valle Trail Scenery: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Birds on Arroyo Del Valle Trail: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 

Remember the overpass you saw in the previous blog posts with the scenery? Under one of those support beams I saw a bunch of wildlife. There were a whole bunch of Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nests, a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) nested with the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nests, and Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) nests. In this blog post I will continue with the photos of the Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and show you a few photos of the Rock Pigeons (Columba livia). Some of the photos below was shot with the help of my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Speedlite to help freeze the birds in flight (the flash is very strong, it does flash that far!). You can click on the first photo to start a slideshow.

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

 While shooting, I saw something move in the hole above me in the overpass. I quickly noticed that they are Rock Pigeons (Columba livia). While it was dark in there, it was no issue for me as I had my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Speedlite. I decided to shoot some photos of them. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Here is another photo of the Rock Pigeons (Columba livia). 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

These are all the photos for today. Next time I will continue with more photos from the trail. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Arroyo Del Valle Trail Scenery: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Birds on Arroyo Del Valle Trail: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 

Birds on Arroyo Del Valle Trail (Part 2) - Pleasanton, CA

Hello guys! If you followed me here in the past, you would know I used to walk on Arroyo Del Valle Trail in Pleasanton, CA all the time, but I've neglected to do so for at least a year or two now. I have went back walking on that trail on a new segment I have never been before, so I hope you enjoy the shots! As for new guys, Arroyo Del Valle Trail is a really long walking trail here in Pleasanton, CA that stretches a great distance. Many locals go there to exercise and take daily walks. It is also a trail filled with photographic opportunities as you will see in the coming blog posts. The photos will be split into several blog posts, and will also be split into scenery and bird photos. I have also shot many bird photos while on this walk. I really hope you enjoy.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best Pleasanton, CA photos for 2015, use this link. To view my best 2015 bird photos, use this link. To see all of my 2015 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link.

Arroyo Del Valle Trail Scenery: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Birds on Arroyo Del Valle Trail: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 

Remember the overpass you saw in the previous blog posts with the scenery? Under one of those support beams I saw a bunch of wildlife. There were a whole bunch of Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nests, a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) nested with the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nests, and Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) nests. In this blog post I will show you the Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and the House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus). Some of the photos below was shot with the help of my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Speedlite to help freeze the birds in flight (the flash is very strong, it does flash that far!). You can click on the first photo to start a slideshow.

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 

 Remember how I said there was a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) nest hiding among the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nests? Here it is. You can barely see it, but it is that red bird that looks different from the rest of the birds. 

 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

These are all the photos for today. Next time I will continue with more photos from the trail. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Arroyo Del Valle Trail Scenery: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Birds on Arroyo Del Valle Trail: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 

Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica)

I decided to take some photos of birds in flight at Coyote Hills Regional Park to practice taking photos of fast moving objects. Here are the photos I took. Coyote Hills Regional Park is a East Bay Regional Park located in Fremont, CA. The area is a salt water marsh with a lot of waterfowls and other animals. I sometimes go there because the birds there are easy to spot as there are no tall trees or foliage in the park. The following photos are of the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica).

我最近拍了一些鸟正在飞行的照片。这些照片是在 Coyote Hills Regional Park 拍的。这个公园是在加州的 Fremont。今天这些鸟叫 Barn Swallow。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Coyote Hills Regional Park photos, use this link. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. For all the photos taken in 2012 in Coyote Hills regional Park, use this link.

Message From The Photographer: Hello guys, sorry about not posting recently. I have been very busy with school work and haven't had much time to spend on my photos. In fact, these are the last of the photos I have ready to post. The rest of my photos are still in RAW format and I like to do some post processing before I post them. Now that we are done with the bad news, here are some good news. On Friday, from 6 AM to 10 AM PST, there will be a space shuttle fly-over at the NASA Moffet Field near Mountain View, CA. I will be there to take photos of the event. I'm pretty sure this will be pretty cool for many of you guys. If you don't know about this event, you can read about it here. Too lazy to get into the details here on the blog. 😂 I'm a photographer, not an article writer. LOL I will do my best to get the photos processed and up on this blog the same day or the day after. 😁 Alright, enough with the message, let's continue to the photos.

When I shown this photo to my friend, he thought it was a fish... I would have cropped it all the way, but I thought the clouds in the background made a good effect for the photo. 

Photography Tip: For photos of fast moving objects, set your camera on Shutter Priority Mode (Tv) and set your camera to take multiple shots. In Shutter Priority Mode, you set the shutter speed and your camera will set the corresponding aperture to make sure your shot is correctly exposed. If the values flash in your camera, it means correct exposure can not be reached (generally underexposure). To fix the underexposure problem, either slow down your shutter speed or boost the ISO. If your camera offers focus tracking, use that too (it is AI SERVO on Canon cameras). Your first few shots may be blurry, you may only have 1 good shot in hundreds of shots. The thing is practice makes perfect and even professionals will screw up on fast moving objects. The thing to remember is if a shot looks bad, take it and look at it and see how to improve the next time you try to do a similar photo. Photography is hard to master and will take time, sometimes even your entire lifetime! It's not an overnight thing and you shouldn't feel sad over a ruined shot. I'm saying this because I often do get sad over a ruined shot, but the thing is, don't look back the past, just look at how you can do better in the future. This not only applies to photography but to daily life too. :)

This is all the photos I have for today! I hope you have enjoyed these photos. I will try my best to get some of my photos finished processing. Don't forget to check back on Friday or Saturday for those Space Shuttle photos! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably missed my message above. If that is the case, you can scroll up and read it.) Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.