Advice I'd normally give to any aspiring wildlife photographer - 'Don't not point your camera up at birds in the trees'.

Why? Because you'll end up with a fairly unattractive angle of your subject and most likely against a blown-out white or dull grey background - and that's if you have balanced your exposure favourably.

Instead you should try to get on their level; allowing for  a more exciting background and to give your audience a more complete picture in regards to environment, season, time of day, etc.

BUT Sometimes it pays off to break the rules... 

In this case, I captured a striking image of a Barn Swallow taking flight that I shot from almost directly below! The sky is over-exposed, but it illuminates the delicate wings of the bird from behind beautifully and gives us a wonderful new perspective on this otherwise quite common bird.

It's good to be aware of general 'rules of photography' but it is important to play with the rules, understand why they exist and also when they might be broken to capture something truly unique.

So go ahead, break the rules! It'll make you a better photographer.

The Equipment:

Canon EOS 6D

Sigma 150-600mm

SanDisk Extreme 32gb (SD Card) Canon

LP-E6 Battery

Adobe Photoshop

The Settings:

Shoot Mode: Manual

Shutter Speed: 1/2500

Aperture: f/10

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 403mm