First Humming Bird pictures ever...

Kaye68 · Sep 1, 2007

So today I go to the local grocery store and they are putting out fresh flowers so I figure this is perfect for me to play with my new macro lens (Nikon 105 f/2.8 VR). Ok so I buy some and go home. Hours later I decide I am ready to play so I take my flowers outside on my patio because that is where I get the best lighting. Well I get just a few shots before I am over come by flies that just love my flowers as much as I do so this is what I ended up with: (handheld)

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After I realize that I can not get a good shot without having a "fly" in the picture I decide to give up so as I am just looking around I find this little guy watching the whole thing and is more likely to be laughing at me so I took his picture: (handheld)

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But just as I turn around to pick my things up and go inside considering this a total lose I see and hear something and look up and it was a humming bird passing through the patio. So now I am like OMG the very first one I see this year!!! All excited I run in the house to tell my dh and gather my feeders to clean them up and fill them to set them outside for the next time that one happens to come by and just maybe it will find it and hang around for a day or so. At least I had high hopes!!! LOL
Not 5 minutes after doing this I am sitting in my patio just thinking and looking at the feeders (still with camera in hand) LOL. Sure as $hit I see one and now I am totally just freaking out!!! I still had my macro lens on and was not sure if I would be able to do anything with it but I tried and was lucky enough to get something. So here I am all excited and this thunderstorm out of no where starts opening up on top my house so I figure oh well, there goes my excitement. Well to my surprise the lightning did not bother "these" little guys at all. YES THESE... there were so many I was just about to have a stroke!!! LOL
Well all I can say is that I give praise to anyone that can get a perfect picture of humming birds because they are soooo fast, it was so hard to get a picture of them. But I managed to get a few "ok" ones out of 76 pictures that I took. Here are only the few that were ok:

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So now that I had my fun and exciting day that was filled with lots of adventure... LOL, I now realize I made the "right" choice in a macro lens based on the "VR" option because if it had not been for that I would have missed everything and could have never shared what I was seeing.
All shot in Aperture Priority.

So, thanks for letting me share!

Buszaj · Sep 1, 2007

Wow! Some of those look unreal! Good job. What shutter speed were numbers 4 and 5 taken? (The wings are captured)

Kaye68 · Sep 1, 2007

oh thank you... this was the first time ever that I was able to attempt this and accidentally had to do it with a macro lens.

The settings for number 4 and 5 were both the same as:

ISO 100 ss/60 f/3, spot metering with on board flash

photogincollege · Sep 1, 2007

I love all the photos, i just have one complaint. In the third photo is that light reflecting off the lens that covers up the wings? Its distracting. I know theres nothing you could have done its just such a wonderful picture that any distractions are grrr. lol. Fantastic Job.

Kaye68 · Sep 1, 2007

photogincollege said:
I love all the photos, i just have one complaint. In the third photo is that light reflecting off the lens that covers up the wings? Its distracting. I know theres nothing you could have done its just such a wonderful picture that any distractions are grrr. lol. Fantastic Job.

I know exactly what you are talking about because it was bugging me too. I kept trying to position myself to avoid the background lighting but that did not last long as it was lightning so much that soon became the least of my worries.

I am hoping to actually setup for these shots and get much better shots within the coming days now that I know they are here.

kundalini · Sep 1, 2007

Excellant photos. Around here (central NC)we only get the ones with a lot of green on them and not nearly as beautiful of specimens as you captured. I have made several attempts so far but nothing worthy of posting. I noted your specs and will give another go. Problem is that I introduced humming bird feeders to my Mom and their positions are hard to get at for a photo.