Swallows are the little migratory birds and come back to northern hemisphere in summer. There is even an event in the Turkish nature calendar as “swallow storm”. That means the swallows are coming back as swarms and the weather is finally getting warmer.

You see these little birds hunting in the sky before sundown, they are really fast and you almost cannot see them, since they are flying high with their little bodies. But once you see them it is easy to recognize, cause they have a two part tail and sickle-shaped wings.

Now you know about them and next time when you see them you can be happy about it, cause you see and recognize them and also this means summer is here! ☀️

About my story: I have a beloved friend, who I recently won back. I don’t know if you know about friendship break ups, but they are painful. Also winning back a lost friend is quite the opposite and it is such a cheerful thing and one of the things in life that makes you feel alive ❤️

The day we met again after 8 years, I found this swallow pin in the flea market. After that we discovered together this little paper shop R.S.V.P. Papier in Mitte, where I found again(!) a swallow paper carving in gold.

It is literally the same shape and size of the pin.

I was happily showing my friend my findings and she opened her purse and gave me a Martenichka (or Martenitsa) - They are the bracelets made of red&white yarn, where you start to wear in March as you wish something (I got mine on the 30th of March huf 😮‍💨) - and she told me, that if I see a swallow or stork on the fly, I need to take it off and tie it to a fruit-giving tree, I need to give it back to the nature, so my wish come true.

After that of course I gave her one of the swallow carvings I found in the paper shop.

Now with all those positive energy and coincidences, I believed that my wish will come true hahah🤞🏻These are the signs that I believe the universe is giving us to go on our path💫 Still with that energy inside I saw my first swallows from the balcony and photographed them with a beautiful sunset show.

How to photograph swallows though?

Or any other bird really! Birds are fast moving creatures and photographing them is a challenge. If the bird is not near you, which is most of the time, you need a lens with a zoom. I used Canon RF 24-105mm. Even 105mm is not enough but I live on the 4th floor and it helped a lot of course.

To my luck the birds made a dive and flew a bit closer to me so I could catch them easier. And with the orange clouds in the background, it was perfect 😍

As of camera settings I used the TV mode of the camera, which gives you the opportunity to set the shutter speed and rest is handled by the camera. I needed a fast shutter speed so I set it to 1/640 seconds. Also I used the continuous shooting mode, with that I could take several photos at one time, and the rest is luck hahah. I took 104 photos in half an hour and only 6 of them are in usable condition. So don’t think that you are not successful with your shoot, even if the result is only few photos. That is completely normal :)

Lots of love ♥︎