My first hummingbird pics ;-)

Well finally got through my first batch of pics, took over 6 GB's, yes I know over kill but you need to atleast find one good pic. Out of my first 40 pics, here is 3 I came up with. Your going to get tired of seeing these. :lol: :lol:

First and foremost I would like to take this opportunity to thank Martin (kramp). I inundated this poor chap, relentless actually. I called him, upteen emails so I could learn as much as I could to prepare myself for this 3 day trip, and he was nothing but helpful. I cannot say enough nice things Martin, so please accept my thanks out loud! This group of people here, and Im NOT sappy, is special, hope we continue to keep it this way!

Ok, now back to the subject. i have never seen a hummingbird before, saw lots of pics. But reality, these things are nothing bigger than a over sized bumble bee. LOL With allot of attitude I will say. By the 3rd day I had them trained :wink: but it took allot of persistence. At the end, they did not even bother with me, so I got the Canon 500d close up filter, really cool 8) Post those once I can find them through all my pics. This was not easy, those little guys are FAST!!!! Mating season or start of, and a whole lot of chasing and guarding the food. The females ruled the roust for 2 of the days, then the male rufous took over period. I tried for 3 days to get the black chin hummer, but they wouldnt allow them close to the set up. Got lucky think I got a whole 3 shots out of 6 GB's LOL...........hope they turned out, soon we will see.........

Ok sorry for the ramble, here are 3 pics................. QUESTION, what is the maximum size pic for posting, see it has some compression to it??
You can also see the pics @ http://www.pbase.com/keithrankin/hummingbirds

Male Rufous

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Male Calliope

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female Calliope
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Thanks Panos

Thanks for the kind words and appreciate letting me know on the resizing, my originals look so much better and actually pbase looks a little better, that could be my problem, will retry on others I repost.

Keith

 

Hi Frank.......

thanks for the kind words Frank.......... No these were all taken with the 70-200mm + 1.4TCeII .........I will post a couple of the 500d shots in the macro forum later this morning.......quite impressive in detail if I say so myself..........

Keith

 

Hi Bill..........

Hi Bill, these were taken at about 7 to 7.5 feet , the combination would not allot me to focus any closer, I tried. LOL .............. The only thing that would have made this better was Kenko extention tubes which I will pick up for me next outing. Martin sez the Kenko DG tubes should work with af-s lenses, so will give it a shot. Allows you to focus closer..........I didnt even pull out my 400mm af-s all trip, this combo worked great. I was cloudy and raining all trip, so got tougher when it was lower light early a.m and late p.m for focusing, but all things considered it was a blast

 

Hi Mike.....

long time no see........

I will see if I can put something together, but in short, I shot everything in manual mode, I metered for flash. I used 4 flashes ( 5 would have been better!) I had 2 SB-800's and 2 SB-26's (sb-26's are great for wireless slaves!!!!!) going to pick up another. Flash set ups changed depending on the birds, but I would say for starting point. One on camera (sb-800 as the master) the 3 other as slaves, shot in M mode. Majority was 1/16 of a second, did change to 1/32 if I wanted to move the flashes closer so I didnt blow out the whites which if metered correctly you should be fine. 2 slaves at 45 degrees on each side and one for the back ground on light stands. the fifth would have been nice to backlight the bird!! Used tripod, used a hummingbird feeder hidden in a geranium (bought other plants to change up). I also had the kids paint me up some backgrounds on water paper. (20x30"). A little bigger would have been nice to give you more flexibility. (Take the stands away at bottom of feeder so they dont get lazy and have to keep flying to feed) Do like Martin does and put a natural stick attached to bottom. I made 3 for the trip, 2 greens and one blue sky background. IF YOU DONT USE A BACK GROUND, YOUR LIGHTS ARE BRIGHTER THAN AMBIENT LIGHT, SO YOUR BACKGROUND WILL BE BLACK. Some of those shots are cool as well. Tried a white background but does not work well, better off using grey, easy way to extract and change backgrounds this way, 18 degree grey card would be perfect. LOL...........this way you can always use for WB............

First leave the feeders out, till they come and get use to it. Once hidden in the flowers, they will find it. It really confuses them. I tried nectar food, but they much prefered the sugar and water. 4 parts water, 1 part sugar

does this make any sense???

 

Thanks Leigh

Not a great shot of one, but sure I can muster up one!!! I think too this bird was my favourite, especitally when his corset was lighted up. He fought lots with the rufus. LOL They are just so mesmorizing to watch!
That black chin as well, his corset would not light up purple, but was neat to watch , and of course wanted him bad but they would not let him in the set up. :lol: Thanks for taking the time to comment!

keith

 

Hi Martin

Had a GREAT teacher :lol: :lol: :lol: Look forward to getting to get together one day to shoot!!! Your spoiled with them in your back yard. LOL

Keith

 

thanks Pete and Don, thanks for taking the time to peek. will take me a while to get through these. LOL...............

 

Hi Frank

Coming from you, will take that as a compliment! thanks for looking..........

keith