Hummingbirds on the deck C&C Welcome

[CMfromIL]

My wife and I plant zinnies on the deck each year, and the hummingbirds come about mid-july each year. Today was the first sighting. All through the window, about 8' away using the 70-200 IS II, 1 with the 1.4 extension on it.

Thoughts?

1.

2.

3.

 

[WesternGuy]

Nice shots - zinnias - I will have to remember that for next year - maybe a window box on the back deck. My only suggestion would be to crop the flowers out on the left side of number three, thus isolating the image to the bird and one flower - much simpler composition IMHO and keeps the viewer's attention focussed on the main subject.
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WesternGuy

 

[CMfromIL]

Thanks for the kind works and suggestions. I'll look at a vertical re-crop of #3 and see if I can make it a bit more appealing. As far as the zinnies go it took a season or two to get them really coming around (the hummingbirds).

We plant them in the same spot on the deck each year, and now that they know they are there they come each July/August and then are gone until the next year. We have never, ever put out sugar water or hummingbird 'feeders' prefering instead to go au natural.

Here is a very quick and dirty cell phone shot of the actual flower planters and the size of them. All I can say is thank goodness for the bokeh provided by the 70-200 IS II because the background is a bit busy!!!

 

[JoshuaSimPhotography]

Perhaps you could have tried a slower shutter speed to get that little bit more motion in the wings

 

[CMfromIL]

@ Joshua, thanks for the suggestion. I was actually wanting to stop the wing motion. I had ISO up to 1600, f/4.0 (with the extender it won't go to 2.8) and shutter speed between 800-1000. I may try some wing blur if he shows up today again. Thanks!

 

[raygunboost]

Very small but pretty ^-^