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Rufous Hummingbird
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Rufous Hummingbird

by Dennis Plank

Gallery: AvianPosted May 17, 2014149 views12 comments
I've never seen one hitting the Mountain Bluet before, but this one was at it for a short while last night. I was actually taking pictures of it bathing in the pond (those will come later), but one of them came to the flowers that were barely outside the minimum focal distance I had difficulty with that much of the frame filled with achieving a good composition, but I thought a couple of them worked reasonably well.

1Div, 500mm f4 ISL + 2.0TC, Jobu gimbal on RRS legs, f8, 1/800, iso 500, Aperture priority, -1/3 stop compensation. Processed in LR5 & CS6. Cropped slightly from the UL corner to help decenter the hummingbird-final size is 13.4MP. Taken yesterday evening at 7:30 pm.

Your comments and criticisms are most appreciated.

Thanks for looking,

Comments

12 comments
Comment posted by Patrick O'Healy on May 17, 2014 at 8:27 PM
Dennis, love the flower and the bird is sharp. Colors and background terrific. Too bad the wings are not back in this shot. :toast:
Registered on March 13, 2011, 326 Posts, 1679 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Ditch on May 17, 2014 at 8:40 PM
Excellent. I always like these natural hummer shots taken without a setup or flash.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments
Comment posted by John Neukirch on May 17, 2014 at 9:01 PM
WOW even with the wings this is a killer shot. Very impressive Dennis! :toast:
Registered on July 9, 2012, 207 Posts, 1476 Comments
Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on May 18, 2014 at 12:33 AM
This is very nice to view, despite the wing position and blurred part of the flower. Very natural colors and an intimate view. Love the flower and striated bg. Sharon
Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments
Comment posted by Hans Overduin on May 18, 2014 at 6:35 AM
Wonderful shot Dennis, I am really impressed ! Cheers, Hans
Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments
Comment posted by Howard Cheek on May 18, 2014 at 6:40 AM
Lovely closeup & the Mountain Bluet makes this great Dennis. I've seen our hummers here in Texas actually float on the water to cool off..
Not hot enough for that yet. Looking forward to your bathing shots:jump:
Very well done :toast:
Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments
Comment posted by Ed Cordes on May 18, 2014 at 9:10 AM
Great image. I agree with Richard that the staged set up shots with the standard formula of wing position etc can be - shall I say it - boring. This image depicts a beautiful scene with natural behavior and a very intimate feel. Love it.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 451 Posts, 3366 Comments
Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on May 18, 2014 at 11:33 AM
Very nice job on this one Dennis. Love the blur in the wings, the colorful flower, the position of the bird, etc. Also very impressed with the sharpness using a 2.0 TC with the 500mm. That combination is historically tough to work with.
Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments
Comment posted by Mike Ramy on May 18, 2014 at 12:11 PM
I like this one Dennis,
Well handled in all respects as usual . . . :toast:
Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments
Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on May 19, 2014 at 1:56 AM
Excellent, Dennis. Intimate, but showing the sheer speed of these little guys.
Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments
Comment posted by Soubhik Patranabis on May 19, 2014 at 10:27 AM
Beautiful shot!! :toast:
Registered on January 25, 2010, 54 Posts, 610 Comments
Comment posted by Jim Hackley on May 23, 2014 at 6:39 PM
Way to cool, wonderful shot and timing to get this Dennis. Excellent shot all the way around.
Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments