Hummingbirds are tough

[ronlane]

I worked for two days trying to get some acceptable photos of anyone of the three hummingbirds that hang out at my Uncle's lake house. This was about the best I could do.



Humming bird by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[pjaye]

Ron, I LOVE this one.

 

[Derrel]

Ron, I LOVE this one.

I do to. I like the way it's got a sort of "summery feeling" to it. it has the strong backlight and all the bokeh balls, and the spider web/cobwebs, and the feeder is not "perfect", it in fact has a bit of dirt or whatnot on it, but the hummer is rendered in a greta body position, with a catchlight on its near eye! and the bill perfectly silhouetted against the cluster of background bokeh ball highlights, and the wings blurred gently, yet not a total blur mess...the backlighting through the bird's closest wing is just delicious. The light/dark junctures in this image are many, and it adds a really good close/far feeling. It's not really perfectly superbly state-of-the-art $7,999 nature photo lens sharp...but it's so,so real, so, so "summery".

I think if you tinkered with the white balance and the green saturation and maybe the yellows, you could make this look pretty different, or you could go very warm and deliberately pastel, and also make a nice picture. I think this is the kind of image where a lot of people think, "I wanted to make it look like a hummingbird specialist took it," meaning like perfect, electronic stop-motion flash at 1/20,000 second with a 200mm f/2.8 and extension tube from 1.5 meters away, and it'd be just so technically perfect, but devoid of feeling.

 

[ronlane]

Ron, I LOVE this one.

Thank you Barb.

Ron, I LOVE this one.

I do to. I like the way it's got a sort of "summery feeling" to it. it has the strong backlight and all the bokeh balls, and the spider web/cobwebs, and the feeder is not "perfect", it in fact has a bit of dirt or whatnot on it, but the hummer is rendered in a greta body position, with a catchlight on its near eye! and the bill perfectly silhouetted against the cluster of background bokeh ball highlights, and the wings blurred gently, yet not a total blur mess...the backlighting through the bird's closest wing is just delicious. The light/dark junctures in this image are many, and it adds a really good close/far feeling. It's not really perfectly superbly state-of-the-art $7,999 nature photo lens sharp...but it's so,so real, so, so "summery".

I think if you tinkered with the white balance and the green saturation and maybe the yellows, you could make this look pretty different, or you could go very warm and deliberately pastel, and also make a nice picture. I think this is the kind of image where a lot of people think, "I wanted to make it look like a hummingbird specialist took it," meaning like perfect, electronic stop-motion flash at 1/20,000 second with a 200mm f/2.8 and extension tube from 1.5 meters away, and it'd be just so technically perfect, but devoid of feeling.

Thanks Derrel, I will have to play with the wb and saturation on this tonight to see.

 

[pjaye]

Derrel always says things better than I do. So ya, what he said. It's the "feeling" from the picture that I love.

 

[keyseddie]

I did about the same this morn. I like stuff that stays still.

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Another hummer.

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[BillM]

You'd think that for such a big slow winged thing that they would .... oh wait, they are none of those things. No wonder they are hard to shoot !!!!

I've wasted many a day taking a few hundred shots to only come away with less than one keeper that's it's not even funny

 

[keyseddie]

Back in film days I shot them in Costa Rica. They were just about everywhere!

 

[kundalini]

Hummers in my neck of the woods (Ruby-throated) have a pretty standard approach when it comes to sipping the nectar. If you sit there long enough to watch their behavior, you will also. Typically they will hover, go in for a sip, back off, hover in position and then take a double dip George Costanza style. It's that back off and hover you need to nail. Pre-focus on that spot and have your remote shutter release at the ready.

Camera settings aside, camera position, time of day and background choice play a lion's share of the final result.

Shooting with lens pointing westward.

Similar lighting conditions, but with the lens pointing northerly

Sometimes though, it is fun to catch them at the feeder. They can be quite territorial.

Good shots Ron. Thanks for posting.

 

[ronlane]

Hummers in my neck of the woods (Ruby-throated) have a pretty standard approach when it comes to sipping the nectar. If you sit there long enough to watch their behavior, you will also. Typically they will hover, go in for a sip, back off, hover in position and then take a double dip George Costanza style. It's that back off and hover you need to nail. Pre-focus on that spot and have your remote shutter release at the ready.

Camera settings aside, camera position, time of day and background choice play a lion's share of the final result.

Shooting with lens pointing westward.

Similar lighting conditions, but with the lens pointing northerly

Sometimes though, it is fun to catch them at the feeder. They can be quite territorial.

Good shots Ron. Thanks for posting.

Thanks. I like your photos. I did pre-focus for the hover. These three didn't really do that, one was the alpha and would chase the other two away from the feeder.