Crying Hummer

Colors look good but the hummer seems a bit lost amongst all the flowers and background-- I would really like to see the beak

Steve:
While the shape of the flower is interesting around the hummer's eye, I'd still like to see more of the hummer and beak. The image balance feels like it is overpowered by the flower. Just my thoughts.

Steve,
Very unique image with the hummer head (eye) being surrounded by the flower petals. Good light, good colors, nice and sharp but would prefer to see the bill of the hummer. I understand why you kept this though.

Looks like it's unanimous so far: everyone misses seeing the hummingbird's beak! Well.....I figured the droplet on the flower beneath the eye of the hummingbird made it look like the hummer was crying....and made up for the concealed beak. Obviously an idea born of an overactive imagination. Thank you for your comments everybody.

I agree, the metallic greens of the hummer come through very nicely here Steve.
I see what you mean about the eye area too, kinda neat the way the small flower petal frames it..
Nice sunny morning look, great details. The flower & hummer share the frame well

A unique capture for sure Steve with the eye framed by the flower petal and the water drop. To me it's a behavior type shot so I don't mind the beak in the flower. I might suggest trying one thing when shooting these guys though, and that is an even faster shutter speed. This looks good, but with a faster S.S. I think the wings would be even sharper. I feel you could get by with a little wider aperture to get the extra speed. That's the advantage of using flashes, you can shoot at much lower ISO settings and shoot at many thousands of a second by the duration of the flash.

P.S. I'm wondering what kind of flower this is.

Thank you very much for the additional comments, Howard and Gary. Gary, I think you are exactly correct about needing a higher shutter speed. In my most recent attempt to photograph these birds I had come to the same conclusion....but no hummingbirds showed up! Regarding flash: I understand the benefits but I have grown increasingly wary of having the flash too evident in the final image. There are some interesting filters for CS5 that look like they could overcome the problem in post processing. Doing it right in the field is preferable but it's not an exact science and sometimes there are no second chances for a trial and error procedure. I'm still mulling over this topic. Regarding the type of flower: they are commonly referred to here as Canna. That turns out to be a genus of nineteen species. I think the whole name is likely Canna indica. They resemble the images at:
http://www.wildcrafting.net/forage/plant/39/

Thanks again, everyone. Great feedback!

Very nice hummer shot Steve. They are tough little buggers to shoot!

I don't mind not seeing the beak here because I know it's feeding on the flower and I do like that drip of water near the eye.

Thank you, Michael and Nate. It's fun to see such diverse opinions.

Steve,
I like how this beautiful bird is enjoying the nectar from the nice flowers. Great colors and comp.