Ruby Throat Hummer

I shot this while home eating lunch today. What do you think?

This is absolutely incredible!!!!

The detail in the birds head is really good, nice shot.

Excellent shot Scott, congratulations, http://www.hectorbrandan.com/images/brandan-photographer.gif

 

WOW! There are those images that stand out and there are those images that stand out above the rest - even if captured while at lunch - you never know and yet you were prepared. WOW! This image is absolutely amazing and executed perfectly. Stunning image, color, tone, definition, DOF, motion and ... simply perfect 7s! WOW!

Very nice shot with nice colours

Great composition,colors and timing!

Excellent capture. 10! Regards.

Nice shot! Very sharply focused.

x cell lint cap sure.

What in the world you had for lunch that day :).

 

How did you get the eyes in focus that's my puzzle ? Did you randomly fire many and this was the winner ?

 

Thanks,

Constantin

www.goodstockimages.com

...focus, composition and blobs of bokeh behind the bird contrast well with its shape and colour.

Thank you everybody. MC - I just auto-focussed on his head as he flew around these flowers. I was able to get 15 shots and only 3 were out of focus or improperly framed. Usually I would consider myself lucky if only 3 were in focus and 12 were out of focus. I sit at the dinner table 7 feet from where this hummer was and I had only eaten half of my lunch when I took it. By the way, it was leftover Hamburger Helper.....Four Cheese Lasagna with a diced up fresh jalapeno and green beans mixed in with it, to be exact. Next time you're in a slump, give it a go.

Hi Scott. You have a very nice capture of this fellow. The catchlight in his eye really gives him "life". I have been experimenting photographing hummers with medium and large format equipment but have had only mariginal results so far. I note that you used two flashes (so do I) with a shutter at 1/1000th second. I assume that this is a high speed sync setting with the Canon? Great exposure!

Being critical, I would have preferred to also have the foreground flower in focus. The DOF falls off very nicely behind the subject, but the foregrouund is a little distracting (for me). At f8, of course, I realize that there is not much DOF to play around with. Is it possible to set the Canon to focus at a hyperfocal spot slightly in front of the main subject? It is still a great photograph! Regards.

it just hit me ...

great job!

 

I love it!

Good thing you ate at home! :0)

Amazing capture. Bravo! Iren

I wonder what would be the result if you were out for taking picture! 7

I sat in the same spot for several hours last weekend and didn't get anything I was really happy with, Mahrashk. I think it might've been that Hamburger Helper I was eating.

Hi Scott

This is amazing. I just got the canon 30d and can't wait to accomplish such a beautiful shot. What flash did you use? I need one for nature photography and weddings. Any advice? Again congrats this is a beauty.

Thanks Vicki. I had a 580EX and a 430EX sitting on the outside window sill and was controlling them with the 550EX attached to the camera inside. If you're just getting one flash I would have to recommend the 580EX. Have fun with your new 30D.

I'm sorry, Walter. It just dawned on me you asked a couple of questions. Yes, I set the flashes to high speed sync. I always keep them set to high speed sync. I honestly don't know why they're not just automatically set to it to begin with. I haven't done any tests, but I'm pretty sure shooting this close at f8 the dof is around 3/4 of an inch. I usually shoot with manual focus for everything except my dog running and hummers flying. I actually wish there was a focal point I could set to just behind the actual focal point. If there was, I would use auto focus a lot more. Most shots with auto focus have the very outside of the feathers in focus when a little more depth is needed. On this shot, I wouldn't have wanted to sacrifice even the tiniest bit of focus on the bird to gain just one or two more petals being in focus. I also wouldn't have wanted to sacrifice any of the light or shutter speed for more dof. Since I won't shoot at anything above iso400, I would've had to shoot this at f20 and 1/200 sec. to maybe get part of that flower in focus. Or I could have zoomed out and ended up with an image only big enough for the web after the crop. Don't tell me you can set a Nikon to focus at a slightly different spot than what it auto focuses at?

The professinal setup and the patience did certainly pay off. Of course humbergur helper played a role too!

 

This shot belongs to a pro class in which the photographer, not the subject, is controling everthing. The job is well done and thank you for sharing.

 

Cheers, Hadi

hi i think that you are a professinal photographer .who can critique on a professinal photo like this ?

 

Just amazing shot ^^^ Max regards

 

***Ali***

wow! shots like this were nearly impossible 20 years ago. This is incredible.