Hummingbird Diversion

I went up to Holden Arboretum on Sunday morning. Chased a cold front east hoping to have calm, cloudy conditions to do some macro work. 30 minutes after I arrived the sun broke through and the wind came up. I'd almost given up for the day when I spotted two female ruby-throated hummingbirds arguing over a patch of bee balm. I'd never worked with hummingbirds before, but figured I'd give it a shot. After a while they got used to me being there and I was able to get pretty close. This is one of the more successful shots. It's cropped to about 60%.

D300, Sigma 180 macro, 1/320 sec @ f/4.5

Good shot. Nice combination of colours. The bird is sharp and the unsharp wings gives the picture motion.

Good shot! Do you have a link to a larger version, as I'd enjoy seeing it?

Tim!

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your interest. I posted two images on my site: Image 1 Image2

Nice catch, Chuck! Perfect placement of the Hummer in the frame, love the wing movement!

Great capture. I can never find one around a flower when the camera is handy.

Strong images Chuck. Excellent focus on the bird...probably not easy considering how fast they can move! The only thing that I get a bit hung up on is the bright upper right corner in the first - perhaps it could be burned down slightly. Nice work.

For a non set-up arrangement, this is outstanding, and because you did not use a set-up, it has an outstanding natural look to it.

Its just beautiful chuck,,, I have to tell you that since i became a member it is a real

challenge for me to come up with photos to even try to compare to you, joel, and a few

others here on this forum. It is a great experience.

Really nice, Chuck. Hummingbirds are a real challenge to photography effectively, but you did very well here.