New photos with the help from everyone on the Forum thank you ,I think I am getting the hang of it and loving every minute of it!

[Susan Will]

Wow this sure is one hard bird to capture! I am not giving up!

 

[Don Kondra]

I really enjoy shooting these little birds ! Everything happens so fast it gets the heart racing !

You've made a good start and are getting to know their habits, the most useful is how they come in to feed, move back and hover for a split second and them come back in. Catch them in the hover !

Some settings you could try are spot metering and center point focus. In the sub menu I have mine set at 9 points.

AFS will do it if you are quick but even more challenging and for me more successful is AFC.

Pre-focus on the feeder, take your finger off the shutter button and wait for an opportunity.

Now this is the challenge, anticipate the hover, half press for the split second the auto focus needs and then full press. And hold it down, he, he.. You never know what the next frame will be.

I kind of like the blurred wings at ~ 1/1000 so I don't try to push the iso too much

Be warned, an obsession with shooting hummingbirds will lead to Longer ($) lenses, he, he...

Cheers, Don

 

[RVT1K]

I agree, learning a bit about the bird's habits and behavior will help. They are so small, so fast, and so fleeting that following them in the viewfinder, especially with a long lens, is exquisitely difficult. But they will often land to feed and then pop up and hover at the same spot.
I also agree with the pre-focusing technique, it can work well especially if the bird is returning to the same spot on the feeder.
We put a hummingbird feeder out every year, unfortunately we don't get very much traffic. Almost all my shots were taken at a friend's house in MD.

 

[PJM]

Wow this sure is one hard bird to capture! I am not giving up!View attachment 246963View attachment 246964View attachment 246965View attachment 246967

Seems to me you are doing a pretty good job of it.

 

[Susan Will]

Seems to me you are doing a pretty good job of it.

Thank you!

 

[Susan Will]

I really enjoy shooting these little birds ! Everything happens so fast it gets the heart racing !

You've made a good start and are getting to know their habits, the most useful is how they come in to feed, move back and hover for a split second and them come back in. Catch them in the hover !

Some settings you could try are spot metering and center point focus. In the sub menu I have mine set at 9 points.

AFS will do it if you are quick but even more challenging and for me more successful is AFC.

Pre-focus on the feeder, take your finger off the shutter button and wait for an opportunity.

Now this is the challenge, anticipate the hover, half press for the split second the auto focus needs and then full press. And hold it down, he, he.. You never know what the next frame will be.

I kind of like the blurred wings at ~ 1/1000 so I don't try to push the iso too much

Be warned, an obsession with shooting hummingbirds will lead to Longer ($) lenses, he, he...

Cheers, Don

Don..... I am really hooked they are an amazing bird and I love trying to capture them. LOL another lens might just be in my near future!