Hummingbird Experiment No. 4

that the flowers detract in this. Thank you for the visit. Regards.

I see what you mean! I'm drawn to the yellow flower almost immediately so I think that it does take your eye away from the main centre point. I'm sure that you will be able to fix that though....

 

Kind regards

 

Rob

 

Excelente encuadre, magnifica luz, color y belleza de composicion , saludos cordiales Walter.

Hi Walter, I feel like the day lillies over power the image. Would much rather see the bird and the yellow flowers, but he didn't cooperate for that shot.

Aloha Walt!

 

Nice to see one of yours on the TRP for a change. Lowballers must have missed it. This image has alot of potential in my mind. The question is, do you crop it, and if so how? My opinion is that there is perhaps too much empty space above and below the feathered visitor. Also with the tree in the background, flowers on either side and green stems in the lower portion, there may be just a bit too much going on, dwarfing the hummer a bit. I played with a few different crops here and found that several (though all quite different) actually appealed to me and could work. I will just put them all up here. One in particular though stands out as the best in my mind. I'd be curious to see, if any of these do appeal to you, which one YOU might find the most effective. I also think because the hummer is not in super sharp focus, that another portion of the scene needs to stand out -aesthetically speaking- to help carry this to its fullest potential. All that said, I still like this original full-framed, uncropped version as well. Nice problem to have actually.

 

By the way, when I lived in the Blue Ridge mountains, I had over five hummingbird feeders. Absolutely my favorite bird on earth. Can you believe there arae none in Hawaii. What a crime...

Unusual, reverse Crop. Unorthodox for sure, but I still liked it.

Vertical Crop

Panoramic

Whoa, quite a choice here. Hmmm...I am tending towards the unusual reverse crop, and these are my reasons. The birdy is not at all as sharp as I would have liked him to be; I wanted to use 1/1000th sec but mistakenly set my camera for 1/250th. Also, the big day lillies are just "too big" for this little guy. If he were critically sharp, without the wing-blur, he would carry the photo against those big flowers; but that is not the case here. The reverse crop works for me because it creates more tension and makes a statement of movement that somewhat ameliorates the faults of the original photograph.

I did not know that "Paradise" was devoid of these guys! Hard to imagine that they were not accidentally introduced over the years. Maybe I should put a couple in an envelope and mail'em to you? ;0) Probably a bad idea since there would be no natural predators. Hummers are cute, but they are feisty little guys. I would hate to be attacked by an uncontrolled swarm of them!

Thanks for your kind attention to this one, my friend, and many thanks to all for stopping by and commenting. Regards.

Nice photo, Walter. For what it's worth (which isn't much), I like the "panoramic" crop. I tried several times just glancing at the photo, and each time, my eye goes to the area between the bird and the lillies, so I wouldn't want to see the lillies go away. He must have a reason for being there, after all. And they add some very nice color.

 

It would be interesting to see how much difference it would have made if you had gotten that 1/1000 shutter speed. The bird would be sharper, but the flowers might be darker. Anyway, a great shot.

 

Best Regards.

Thanks Barry! The pano crop was actually my second preference of Vince's series. I agree about the higher shutter speed; I need to pay more attention to what I am doing. Regards.

Well, I actually favored the vertical crop when putting these together. I think it's the simplest while also maintaining a lot of color. The reverse crop is an unusual image in my mind, but, I also like it because of just that. It's odd, but appealing. The pano seems perhaps just a bit too busy perhaps for me, but does have a lot to offer the one looking in IF the busy-ness is not an issue. I do agree with Barry about the added color from the lilly, but, if something has to go, since it might be considered a bit busy, I would probably point in that direction. Still, when all is said and done, you have plenty of opportunities here. In my opinion, that is a good thing!

 

They have actually brought hummers out here to Hawaii before Walt; they all fly back to the mainland though. Can't figure that one out...

but I would selectively desaturate the yellow of the flowers. I think they provide an interesting layer to the image, but the color is just a tad too intense for your subject. Ideally the hummingbird would be in sharper focus (faster shutterspeed/flash combination), but at the same time we've all seem that shot and I like the fact this isn't the standard shot. I hope the alternate feedback helps get your creative juices flowing.

Thanks Jim for stopping by and the advice! I thought about desaturating the mass of flowers but I could not get it to look natural. Practice makes perfect, so I will try doing that again. Regards.

I'd like to throw my two cents into this fray too, as it were ;)

I too feel that Vince's panorama crop evokes the most dynamism and gives a sense of movement...

Mark