Shooting hummingbirds
 

I don't know much about hummingbirds, but we've had a feeder up for a few years. I've taken a few pictures of them in the past, like:

http://images25.fotki.com/v899/photo...DSC_138-vi.jpg

This weekend I decided to get a few more pictures, so I spent the evening hunting hummingbirds. I started out inside, shooting through the open screen door, with a 70mm lense:

http://images26.fotki.com/v891/photo...SC_5138-vi.jpg

Then I borrowed my wife's 300 mm lense and got this shot:

http://images25.fotki.com/v898/photo...SC_5288-vi.jpg

Then I started getting closer. I think that this is a male, based on the neck color:

http://images25.fotki.com/v897/photo...SC_5289-vi.jpg

This is shot at 1/100 of a second. You can get an idea of how fast these birds can move:

http://images26.fotki.com/v893/photo...SC_5290-vi.jpg

I decided to try the flash, which results in a better picture. I think that this one is a female. Notice the different color of the neck:

http://images26.fotki.com/v889/photo...SC_5291-vi.jpg

The flash startled this male. He and I both moved. I'm only including it because I like the lack of definition. It looks like an explosion of feathers:

http://images24.fotki.com/v862/photo...SC_5293-vi.jpg

These next few came out very clear, especially in the full-size originals (6MP). I was probably shooting at about three feet from the feeder.

http://images25.fotki.com/v899/photo...SC_5296-vi.jpg

http://images25.fotki.com/v901/photo...SC_5298-vi.jpg

http://images23.fotki.com/v877/photo...SC_5298-vi.jpg

http://images26.fotki.com/v885/photo...SC_5299-vi.jpg

This next one is interesting because it shows how fast the wing movement is. The shutter speed is 1/60 second with flash, but you can see that the wing makes at least one full flap in that time:

http://images26.fotki.com/v889/photo...SC_5301-vi.jpg

This one is without flash, 1/30 second, but is still fairly steady.

http://images26.fotki.com/v888/photo...SC_5312-vi.jpg

Another without flash and 1/30 second:

http://images25.fotki.com/v899/photo...SC_5313-vi.jpg

Here's the male sitting on a branch. It's not as dark as this picture makes it appear:

http://images25.fotki.com/v898/photo...SC_5317-vi.jpg

http://images26.fotki.com/v889/photo...SC_5317-vi.jpg

This one is my favorite of the night shots. It looks much better at full resolution compared to this:

http://images26.fotki.com/v889/photo...tnight2-vi.jpg

I look forward to pictures of hummingbirds that others might post.

P.S. I'm using a photo site called Fotki to host these images. This is the maximum resolution available for shared photos.
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Hey great job, and pretty feeder too.

Great shots.

Thanks jinx. I like the way that feeder acts as a lense, inverting the trees and mountains across the canyon. Unfortunately, when the sun shines on it the water heats up and leaks out.

Here's a zoom of the last picture:

http://images25.fotki.com/v897/photo...ghtzoom-vi.jpg

great camera work HLJ

It helps that I can get very close to them. I smear my body with honey and they can't smell me.

Only now I can't leave my house because of all the bears lying by the front door.

And bees!

Great shots, HLJ. Thanks again, for sharing those.

hlj, fantastic shots - love the stops on some of those close-ups.

what camera/lens were you shooting with? [/gearhead]

breakingnews -- thanks. These were taken with a Nikon D70 (digital). One or two were taken with the stock kit lense (18-70mm); the rest were taken with an aftermarket lense that I bought for my wife last year, but I can't think of the manufacturer right now. It's a ??-300 mm zoom. I'll try to remember to write it down tonight.

If you want Exif metadata for any of the shots, let me know.

Just awesome!

do you do much post processing? a little photoshop work and you could turn some of those shots into seriously crisp photographs. my fave is: DSC_5296-vi.jpg

i'd like to get a 300 or 500mm lens ... but i have absolutely no use for it. someday....

The only processing I did was a little cleanup on the last shot (Nightfeeding). There was some black dirt on the red nipple and I removed that. Otherwise they are just straight from the camera and compressed by the photo host (Fotki).

I looked at the lens this morning, but I didn't write down the model. I think it was a Tamron 28-300 XR Di, which is reviewed here. I bought it for my wife to use with her Nikon film camera and it wasn't very expensive. It seems to work just as well for digital and film, though I haven't taken too many shots at the wide end, where there might be some barrel distortion.

I hate it when there is dirt on the red nipple.

Your feeder looks like a planet. A tasty little planet...

I guess that's why Playboy uses so much air brush.


It's crunchy on the outside, with a sweet liquid center!

Did you draw the GalactUT, or cut-and-paste? That's some fine art.