This should be the last of the hummingbird photos I post this season. Unless I manage to get something that trumps all of the previous shots but I don’t see that happening right now.
On Saturday I experimented with shooting the birds in flight. To do this I put some distance between myself and the feeder to put the birds at ease. While I got some great shots, I ended up having to crop-zoom to get something that would fill the frame.
That means as good as that shot above is, that’s also it in terms of resolution and file size. It’s not printable but makes good web copy.
Same for these
But today I moved in closer to the feeder. The birds were quite a bit more wary and were reluctant to come in close. They did come and I imagine they will become braver if I keep it up.
What a difference a few feet make, though.
The above image is resized for the web, but the full res version is 2148×1432. That’s quite a difference for just a few feet, some serious sweat equity and a lot of patience.
I’ve learned quite a bit via this exercise about focal length and shooting fast moving targets, not to mention the capabilities and the limitations of my gear. And best of all, I had a ton of fun doing it!
Hopefully my handful of readers are not sick to death of seeing hummingbirds and haven’t abandoned all hope and moved on to less feathery region of the Internet.
Such a gorgeous, delicate, crazy awesome bird, and you captured it beautifully.
(No need to stop taking the photos…by the way. 🙂
I really enjoy the hummingbird shots and if you continue to take them pretty soon the birds will be posing for you. I say, as long as you have a willing subject, keep taking shots! =)
Jay: This makes you a hummerazzi.
Hummers are pretty brave and very curious. If you are out by the feeder often they will probably even begin to approach you. I have a friend who had 16 feeders in his yard and he had one hummer who would come to find him if her favorite feeder was empty. She’d check out all the windows and when she saw him she’d just scold and scold. Many of those hummers were annual returnees. So keep sitting outside with your camera and post as many of those photos as you like. We’ll still be here.