Lesson from a screw-up

I was shooting a Pine Siskin the other day when a Rufous Hummingbird unexpectedly arrived. I took a bunch of images, but forgot to adjust my settings. In the process I learned just how good hummingbirds are at maintaining their heads and beaks in a stable position.

Compare the clarity of the beak and head in this image with the feet and tail area, not to mention the wings. Even the nearby leaf is visibly vibrating in the wind from the wings.

This was taken at f9, 1/100s, iso400. To emphasize the vibration I cropped this to about 20% of the original and did the same sharpening I would normally use for web presentation.

Now if I could just get hummingbird grade image stabilization, I'd be set.

interesting, Dennis! and at 1/100, too--that's a steady head. I'm all for hummingbird IS lenses--not only stable, but lightweight!

That's very cool Dennis.

Dennis,
Nice graphic demonstration; thanks for sharing.
---John

Interesting situation, thanks for sharing. Nice photo also.

Hummingbirds are among the most awesome birds on the planet, and that's saying a lot. Good proof!

Hey Dennis, thanks for posting this, it really does show their amazing ability to control the hover.

That's a great shot Dennis. I too agree that hummingbirds are fascinating and challenging to capture.

Dennis:
This is very interesting. In fact, I spent some time on the web looking for studies related to how the birds accomplished this remarkable behavior, with an emphasis on the sensory/motor mechanisms involved (my interests in a previous life).
I found a description of a paper that may be of interest to you (and I have a copy of the original paper if you are seriously interested).
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hummingbird-039-s-Hovering-Abillity-From-Its-Brain-41440.shtml
Another summary of the same paper is here
http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/12/01/how-hummingbirds-hover/
Dave

Dennis, this "screw-up" is an outstanding way of showing the result of what the publications David mentioned in his comment describe. You could even go to one of David's links (the first one I think would be best) and try to send the authors of the paper a copy of the image or at least a link to this forum. I bet that they would be very interested.

David said: "I'm all for hummingbird IS lenses--not only stable, but lightweight!"

True: but just think of the battery drain!