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Peewee the Hummer
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Peewee the Hummer

by Jim Zablotny

Gallery: AvianPosted October 6, 2017165 views5 comments
Hummingbird numbers were down this Summer and encounters with male ruby throated hummingbirds were few and far between.  This male preferred to perch on this stick which I duck-taped to our deck railing. Photo was taken during a period of rain. The image is not as sharp as I would like, but is an OK compromise between camera and available light. K5 IIs 600 mm f5.6 (1/250 sec ISO 400 f13), crop for comp, levels.........................Jim

Comments

5 comments
Comment posted by David Schoen on October 7, 2017 at 11:25 AM
Despite the tiny amount of softness in the detail, this is still a very nice image.  Rain will do that but the trade-off is that you get colors that cannot be reproduced when the sun is out..  This shows in both the background and on the bird itself.  The water droplets on the beak are a plus.  Yes you could probably get away with some localized sharpening and I don't know whether it would detract from the image or not.  While a smaller perch is preferable with a small bird, you can't dictate their behavior.
Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments
Comment posted by Sharron Sims on October 7, 2017 at 1:18 PM
This is lovely Jim. While the body appears soft, the detail in the head is good and the colors are beautiful. Perfect BG too. 
Registered on April 28, 2014, 54 Posts, 166 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on October 7, 2017 at 4:05 PM
Detail looks good in the larger image, Jim, and I like the pose and bg.  I'd be tempted to crop top and bottom to get rid of the more oof portion of the perch.
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments
Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on October 7, 2017 at 10:08 PM
The perch and the overall composition look very good to me. I feel that the focus point is more on the throat of the bird, rather than on the eye, and hence the head and the right side of the body of the subject are out of focus. I can't understand why there is such a shallow depth of field, even though you have shot this at f13!
Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments
Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on October 7, 2017 at 11:24 PM
Hi Jim, I like the pose a lot and love the dried moss on the perch. I also like the placement i the frame. However, as you stated it's a bit soft. I am wondering why you shot this at f/13? Were you trying to get the entire perch in focus? If mine, I might have sacrificed that for less DOF so you could increase your SS. I think the 1/250 is partially to blame for the softness of the image. If you would opened your Aperture to something like f.6.3 or even f/7.1 (both of which should be plenty of DOF for a small humming bird) you would have been able to shoot this with more SS and I think solved your softness issue.
Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments