Nature Photographers Network
This is the preserved archive of the original Nature Photographers Network. The community continues at naturephotographers.network.
Rufous Hummingbird
‹ PreviousAvian GalleryNext ›

Rufous Hummingbird

by Dennis Plank

Gallery: AvianPosted March 23, 2014175 views13 comments
Our hummingbirds started showing up about a week ago and are starting to arrive in fair numbers. I spent a little while yesterday evening near a feeder that hangs from the eave of our pump house. The bg in this is the pump house wall. I liked the way the shadow fell on the wall. I wish I'd gone to a higher iso to reduce the wing blur a bit more. I like a blurred wing on hummingbirds, but I like them to retain their outline reasonably well.

7D, 500mm f4 ISL + 1.4TC, Jobu gimbal on RRS legs, f5.6, 1/1250, iso 400 Av mode + 1/3 stop compensation (I still had to increase exposure significantly in processing). Processed in LR5 & CS6. Cropped to 13.5MP of an original 18. Taken March 22nd at 5:36 pm.

Your comments and criticisms are always appreciated.

Thanks for looking,

Comments

13 comments
Comment posted by Alan LaFaver on March 24, 2014 at 1:39 AM
Image looks really good to me. I agree with your self critique. Just a little faster shutter speed. I like the shadow. Focus and crop look great.

Only thing that looks a little off to me is the temp. Is it a little on the warm side? Maybe it's the red frame. I'm also not too familiar with hummingbirds, but I didn't know they were so brown. What variant is this?

Al
Registered on February 28, 2014, 18 Posts, 147 Comments
Comment posted by Simon Bennett on March 24, 2014 at 2:23 AM
Gorgeous little well captured. The shadow adds interest.
Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments
Comment posted by Balan Vinod on March 24, 2014 at 7:47 AM
Dennis ..I love this picture ..and the ghost too....thats flying along..

Balan Vinod
Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments
Comment posted by Martin Dunn on March 24, 2014 at 8:13 AM
The only thing I don't like here is the red frame Dennis. Thankfully it is not present on th elarger image.
Registered on February 20, 2013, 198 Posts, 1011 Comments
Comment posted by Keith Bauer on March 24, 2014 at 8:42 AM
Nice capture of the rufous. Sometimes the wing blur works well with these guys and sometimes it does not. I'm not wild about the back wing in particular on this one. Oh well. The biggest distraction on the small image is that red frame....
Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 24, 2014 at 9:07 AM
Red frame removed.

Al:

Re temp. The Rufous male is very brown, though the light was quite warm. When I processed it, the red in the gorget seemed a bit cool so I did bump the warmth up a bit-may have gone just a bit too far.

:wavey:
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments
Comment posted by Robert Bunch on March 24, 2014 at 10:28 AM
A very beautiful bird. Really nice color on that gorget. I don't mind the wing blur. The head and eye are sharp and the blur kind of illustrates the amazing wingspeed of these little birds. I also like the shadow.
Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments
Comment posted by Max Waugh on March 24, 2014 at 11:14 AM
The shadow does make for an interesting composition. Glad you got some color out of that beautiful gorget.

Max
Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments
Comment posted by Ken Watkins on March 24, 2014 at 12:09 PM
Dennis,
I agree that perhaps a n increase in shutter could have helped, but what makes this unusual is the shadow and background :toast: :toast:
Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments
Comment posted by Hans Overduin on March 24, 2014 at 3:57 PM
Nice to have the shadow included. Agree on the wing motion. Exciting species by the way Cheers, Hans
Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments
Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on March 24, 2014 at 7:17 PM
Dennis, love this little guy and the shadow is what I thought was pretty cool in this shot as well. It doesn't look to warm on my monitor...it looks natural.
Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments
Comment posted by Luke Ormand on March 24, 2014 at 8:55 PM
Awesome position and I like the colors - the shadow in the background makes for a unique image too. Very "stock"
Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments
Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 26, 2014 at 9:58 PM
Great bg with the shadow and gold. I agree that a little more shutter speed or different wing position would have made it even better. Cool shot Dennis :toast:
Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments