Hummingbird

Gallery: AvianPosted September 5, 201061 views7 comments

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)

This was taken this morning near the campus of the University of Toronto at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. All of the many hummers I’ve seen around here this year have had white throats. They can’t be all females? Likely immatures?

This particular bird watched me quite intently for quite awhile. Notice that she is sticking her tongue out. I’ll try to take that as a compliment…

At 3.9 MP this is a large crop for the 7D. The background was quite busy. I found with a smaller crop this very small bird tended to be lost in the background. Of course, this is as close as I could get to her. Later efforts to slowly approach more closely made her disappear. At any rate, I think that the detail is holding up quite well.

I always welcome any comments.

7D, 400 mm f/5.6: 1/1000 s, f/8.0, ISO 400, -2/3 EV. NR, some exposure adjustment, Sharpening.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on September 5, 2010 at 2:16 PM

Steve, I like the tongue out pose. I believe a lot of the birds we take images of would do this to us photographers if they could. I agree that a hummer needs to be prominent in the frame most of the time to make the image work. I like the comp here. There are a few distracting elements such as the OOF "V" branch to the left of the bird and the small bluish cast part of the perch branch pointing toward the back. However, these are not show stoppers IMO.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by David Haynes on September 5, 2010 at 8:06 PM

Steve,
Like Ron I believe that hummers need to be rather isolated from the backgraound so they can make more of an impact. The background is a little busy for me especially with that OOF branch just to the left of the perch. That being said with such a large crop I really think the details are holding pretty well. Nice head angle and the tongue is special. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on February 20, 2010, 110 Posts, 1511 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on September 5, 2010 at 9:46 PM

Nice shot Steve. If you crop out the OOF branch it might make it too tight for the Hummer, so I would leave it or clone it out. I find the bright OOF leaves in the BG abit more of a distraction. Still, a good photo. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on September 6, 2010 at 12:04 AM

I guess she's telling you what she thinks of you, Steve.

I like your comp, and I'm not especially bothered by the oof branch at left but I would try to do something about the blue on the small part of the perch below the bird.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on September 6, 2010 at 12:47 AM

The open beak gives this shot some interest. I normally don't shoot wide open but I might have here to try and blur the bg more, I'm not sure if it would have made much of a difference or not.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on September 6, 2010 at 9:07 AM

Steve,
I really like the detail and the tongue out. Although the background is a little busy I can focus on the subject.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on September 9, 2010 at 9:25 PM

Thank you, everyone. Yes, I guess we all agree that the background is a bit busy. I see that Alien Skin Software has a second version of their Bokeh program. If I can find some time I'll give it a try. Some of you may recall that I struggled with the first version and never could obtain blurred backgrounds that were satisfactory. Tough audience!! The bluish cast on part of the perch (first mentioned by Ron B) was a surprise to me. I'm not sure of its origin but at least it is easily remedied. Thank you all again for your very constructive comments.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments