i take shots of a lot of different wildlife but these are my money bird.

there are 7 different species of hummer that come through or live in california. NONE OF THEM ARE RUBY TRHOAT REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU SEE!

the anna's stays here all year round but still gets reclusive in the winter. i see them everyday but they are much harder to photograph as they do not have to defend their food source as much. they get very active when the other hummers arrive on the scene.


i got some shots of anna's male and female yesterday along with an immature allen's male and a blackchin male. they are not great as these are just some test shots i took setting the stage for the high season. there will be artificial lighting, as well as natural, and settings will be very different at that time.

hopefully these are good enough to get some feedback on the lighting.

it's my favorite time of year as these little scutters live at my house(approx 250 hummers a day during peak season)and i get some great shots.

i have my good equipment and picturetaking skills finally ready after 2 years.

this year i will be hosting my first set of photo tours and hummers will be one of the big ones as they are popular with lots of different folks.

here is the anna's male. the one i had the lighting question on not long ago. i tried the gray card and the light meter, as advised, which worked to a certain extent. i also had overcast conditions with no sun which was also a help. as you can see from the shots the birds head still grabs the maximum available light.

the first 3 shots are all the same male so you get an idea of the colors on his head and how they can switch. notice the 2 highly contrasting lights sources that need to be metered.

feel free to check the histograms and offer any additional advice.

male anna's ---resident

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/terryg/hummers/hummer9.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/terryg/hummers/hummer8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/terryg/hummers/hummer7.jpg


an immature male allen'--newly arrived

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/terryg/hummers/allen1.jpg

male anna's(resident) on left and male blackchin on right-newly arrived.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/terryg/hummers/fight2.jpg

__________________
"those that would barter freedom for security, deserve neither"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll trade ya some chickadee's, nuthatches, cardinals, and blue-jays for a few hummingbirds :D 250 a day must be an incredible sight!

Those irridescent neck feathers are probably causing you a lot of headaches, photographically. Their reflective quality, I imagine, requires the camera to be stopped down 1/2 to 2/3 from the normal exposure.

I would try to mount multiple flashes off-camera to not get a direct blow back of the reflection. Plus, you will be able to get a portion of the wingbeat in sharp freeze-frame.

What ISO are you using? The noise seems quite distinct.

Those irridescent neck feathers are probably causing you a lot of headaches, photographically. Their reflective quality, I imagine, requires the camera to be stopped down 1/2 to 2/3 from the normal exposure.

I would try to mount multiple flashes off-camera to not get a direct blow back of the reflection. Plus, you will be able to get a portion of the wingbeat in sharp freeze-frame.

What ISO are you using? The noise seems quite distinct.


thank god! a photographer than finally understands the problem. :D :D


you may not notice it so much from these shots but the contrast between the head and the breast is ungodly. i have the breast so underexposed to keep the highlights on the head from blowing out it is ridiculous. that was heavy over cast and only uv light and you can still see the blowout on the head highlights.:mad: inagine sunlight!:rolleyes:

it was dark enough i was shooting at 400-800 that day. i shot about 300 frames with vitually all of them either blown out or too dark. along with that on the 20d, even in manual focus(see i pay attention :wink5) it still causes the focus to be off because of the flare. i have even pondered going back to an old manual focus lens so the light doesn't effect the focus.

as i said these were just test shots without the whole setup. i have the adorama studio flash kit but have not had any time to set up and dink with it.

i have a few months till the peak season and hope to get much more testing by then.

i have used the gray card setting as well as metering with a hand meter. both helped to some ext went but i only wish is was as easy as stopping down 1/2 -2/3.

this is the only hummer that gives me fits. the others breeds are much easier in any light. even bright sunlight.

the first 3 pics are all the same bird. i posted the first 2 so viewers could get some idea of how one birds head can change in a split second. this is where the "fits" come in. have your camera set for the first and he moves a fraction of an inch and you have the 3rd. and vice versa. the second shows the 3 surfaces and angles that will all grab different amounts of light all at once or in pieces.

makes me tear what little hair i have left out of my head.:D :D :D

any help is greatly appreciated loupey:thumbsup:

I'll trade ya some chickadee's, nuthatches, cardinals, and blue-jays for a few hummingbirds :D 250 a day must be an incredible sight!


as a matter of fact paul, that is what my business is about. i don't have cardinals and my bluejays are different from yours but i average 26 different species of songbird from my front porch and 5- of the 7 species of hummer have been photgraphed there.

the tours will give you accesss to the following equipment as well as your own for the purpose of photographing where you can get the shots you want in comfort.

canon equipment consists, at this time, of 2 20d's, 2 100-400 L's, 1 70-200 L 2.8, 1 1.4 ext, 2 18-55 kits, 2 50 1.2, full studio flash kit, a 15 inch ac/dc lcd for instant viewing of camera files without downloading and a 61 inch lcd sony monitor connected to an hp media center computer with multiple card accesses for review in an air conditioned studio, after downloading.

pm me for more details. :thumbsup:

I'll give it some more thought. Last year, I only had about a dozen opportunities with male Ruby-Throated's. So I didn't get a chance to try different techniques.

Any more help and I'll have to bill you business-to-business :p :D :)

I'll give it some more thought. Last year, I only had about a dozen opportunities with male Ruby-Throated's. So I didn't get a chance to try different techniques.

Any more help and I'll have to bill you business-to-business :p :D :)


sounds good to me loupey. come on out and i'll trade ya all the hummer shots ya want as long as i can pick your brain. :D :D

with you taking the shots and the instant feedback we should be able to solve this in no time :wink5

Sounds like a legitimate "business trip" to me :)

OK, I thought about it: As easily as they can flash and adjust their feathers, I think that no amount of preparation will provide the degree of "successful images" that you are looking for. The only controllable factors will be the general lighting, shooting angle, and camera settings. When your target species arrives at the proper approach angle, I would squeeze off as many continous shots while following and focusing in full manual focusing mode.

So perhaps every one in a dozen images will have the proper amount of feather flash that you are looking for.

Not the most technical approach. But this may be one of those instances when quantity will tip the balance in your favor.

exacly how i got these. around 400 shots over a 6 hour period and i scored about 10 that are pretty fair. most are repititous but that is what i did too!

i thought and thought about how they were able to do it with film and that is what they did too but they had one advantage over you and i. our cameras even on manual foucus are still electronic focus;)

i do feel vindicated that you and i would use the same approach.

and btw, you're darn right that is a business trip. :thumbsup:

Sounds like a legitimate "business trip" to me :)

OK, I thought about it: As easily as they can flash and adjust their feathers, I think that no amount of preparation will provide the degree of "successful images" that you are looking for. The only controllable factors will be the general lighting, shooting angle, and camera settings. When your target species arrives at the proper approach angle, I would squeeze off as many continous shots while following and focusing in full manual focusing mode.

So perhaps every one in a dozen images will have the proper amount of feather flash that you are looking for.

Not the most technical approach. But this may be one of those instances when quantity will tip the balance in your favor.