1st Post to Birds Forum - Hummingbird

[jfrancho]

Catching these guys reminds me of fishing - you set up in the likely area, and wait for a nibble. Patience seems to be the key. Much like fishing, my dad always gets the keepers - this is a picture my father got while I decided to get a snack. I had the camera on the tripod setup and prefocused on a feeding station. All he had to do was squeeze the remote, while I ate. Not bad, dad, not bad at all.


This is a 1/3 crop, shot at 300mm on a tripod, exposure was 1/800 s. @ f/6.3 ISO 800. It's pretty noisey, and that Tammy 28-300 isn't known for sharpness wide open, but it's a start.

http://plan-b.smugmug.com/photos/69229026-L.jpg

[Sindri Skulason]

Beautiful shot. Love the bokeh. Well done. :-)

[clivingston]

Very nice image. Like my Dad always said " patience is a virtue " words to live by if you plan to photograph birds!

[alpha788]

Very nice capture and BG!

[dazzlebea]

Great job, jfrancho's dad! What a beautiful hummer :) Love the bg :)

Did you try "de-noising" it?

[jfrancho]

Very nice image. Like my Dad always said " patience is a virtue " words to live by if you plan to photograph birds!I sat there for about 45 minutes. I watched several male orioles spar over a female; two male hummers involved in a territorial dispute about four feet from me; a female and two male hummers that, to my dismay, chose a different feeding station. I took a break, and my dada sat down for ten minutes, came in and said he got them! I love just sitting there. After about ten minutes of sitting still, the birds forget about you and you can really see their natural behaviour. The orioles really crack me up.

[jfrancho]

Did you try "de-noising" it?Where do think that nice bokeh came from? :) It sure wasn't from that Tammy! Seriously, I used a heavy dose of Noise Ninja in conjunction with a surface mask to protect the details. I didn't get the exposure exactly right - I used EC + 1/3 in AV mode - and had to bump it up 1 stop in ACR.

[jfrancho]

To everyone: Thanks for the kind comments. Any tips beyond what I've figured out already?

[sparker1]

It's a nice shot. Why not shoot with a flash at 100 ISO?

[jfrancho]

I'm thinking that flash will work well. I wonder if it will scare off the bird? I'd have to see how the background exposure will be too. It looks like enough light to go down to 100 and a shutter of 1/250. Thanks, Stan.

[Gary Fairhead]

A very nice first posting in the bird forum. Great action and you did a good job assisting your father in getting this image;) I have seen some amazing Hummer shots where flash was used so I presume they aren't bothered that much by it. Nice work!

[jfrancho]

Flash it is then! Thanks all for the help.