birds Untitled

This guy was guarding his territory while perched on a holly leaf in

front of my house. I shot the picture from inside the house with the

window and the window screen removed and my tripod set up next to my

computer! The house made an excellent blind; I also got photos of

several other birds from this vantage point.

This is so lovely.

Very nice, you can almost hear him sing. Very well done. Good bright colors.

Beautiful, great pose! Perfect technique.

Beautiful and very sharp! lovely bird, do you know what kind of hummer is this one? just curious, jc

This is a male Rufous Hummingbird. They are very aggressive in defending their territory, and I sometimes wonder when they find time to eat. This guy was never able to sit still for more than 5 or 10 seconds at a time; there was always someone to shoo away from his domain!

G'day Jeremy, I have been marvelling at the clean and crisp quality of this image for some time now.

It looks like you got everything right in-camera. I sense that you did very little (if any) post processing. In obtaining this excellent detail, I was wondering if you could elaborate on the role/significance of the 37mm extension tube in this 500mm lens and 1.4x tele converter combo.

I am interested in what kind of ISO setting and shutter speed you had to use, to arrest the movements of this little guy.

Also, how important was the availability of the IS function for this shot.

Furthermore, going by pricing alone, is this simply what you would (want to) expect from a $6000 - $9000 lens...

G'day, Peter -

 

First of all, I was very (!) close to this little guy. We were having new floors put into our house, and so I was sort of on house arrest for the week that took. I spent a lot of time hanging out in my computer room, which is on the front of the house. In the front yard, we have a hummingbird feeder, and I soon noticed that this rufous hummingbird regarded the feeder as part of his domain. He did his best to drive away every other hummingbird that tried to use this feeder. He also tried to do the same thing for the three other feeders in the back yard. Anyway, after watching him for a little while, I realized that the holly leaves were his habitual perch after driving off an intruder. That is, after he buzzed someone off, he would perch on this or another nearby leaf for a few seconds.

I took the screen off the window in the room, and also removed the window from its frame ( not hard with these windows) and spent all the time during which the sun illuminated the holly shooting pictures of this little guy - probably a total of 500 or so shots. The 37 mm of extension tube was because he was only about 12 feet way from the camera, and the lens could not be focused that close without the tubes.

The lens was mounted on a Wimberley gimbal head (model 2), on a gitzo 1325 tripod. The IS function was turned off, so it played no part whatsoever in getting the shot. Arresting the movements of the bird was easy, since he would perch essentially motionless for a few seconds after each buzzing. The actual exposure was at 1/100 and f5.6. Processing - capture sharpen, curve layer and hue/saturation layer, then local sharpening. This lens is sharper than you would believe without the 1.4x, and very nearly that sharp with it. Worth the money!

Your comprehensive response is very much appreciated, Jeremy.

About 500 shots! Thank goodness for the availability of the digital medium, I guess...

Just to put my queries into perspective. As a (mainly) landscape photographer, I have not had much experience with anything over 100-200mm and only recently obtained a 2x TC for my EF 200mm f2.8.

I've had a go at trying to capture some of our feathered friends, but have found it to be quite challenging work. Mostly, because they (of course) don't sit still for very long!

Shooting from inside the house with the screen and window opened/removed, is not something that I have tried as yet. I suppose it is just a matter of patience, persistence and a dose of luck.

What an amazing detail, beautiful picture.