Practicing exposure comp and manual focus...hummers, and cat

[helmet155]

After two days of snapping pictures in the gardens here in the park and on the porch for hummers using manual focus, I ashamedly only have a handful of keepers.

Hummingbirds have been an intrigue to me ever since I was little - I grew up out in the sticks and we had no kidding about 20 hummingbird feeders around our property, 10 acres total but only about 1 acre that was maintained and that's where the feeders were...my job was to refill the feeders on Sunday and Wednesday every week...well to summarize I am really having fun watching and attempting to photograph these guys. I have a long way to go and some gear to purchase courtesty of Uncle Frank's input.

This were taken with D70, iTTL built in flash, 1/500th, manual focus, shutter priority mode, +1.3EV, 80-200 AF-S at 180mm, 1st on tripod, 2nd handheld...

You probably will have to left click on the images for a larger version due to the forum's re-size feature!

Please feel free to critique as I would like to learn.

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[Nikam]

Nice hummers, Brett. I like the 2nd one best because it seems more natural without the feeder. They are tough to get. I haven't had much luck with them, but have only tried once in the wild.

 

[greyflash]

Well who am I to critique you since I have only taken one hummer picture in my life and it was an abismal failure. I do however know what I like so I will say "bag the feeder." The second one is quite good and has a jaunty angle to it. Just a little close to the left edge however.

 

[helmet155]

Thanks for the comments, I do agree...the feeder ruins pictures but I liked his color so much I wanted to show it to everyone!

I will re-crop the 2nd one tomorrow Gordon and re-post it, it does look a little too close to the edges!

One last one, our cat, Scully who is now known as "The Dogger" because she is constantly dogging you for treats and affection...she is peeking out from under my office chair which my girlfriend draped her robe over this morning..she loves to be in 'caves'

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[helmet155]

I re-cropped it and here's the repost...

I also used the FM Intellisharpen level 3 on it and DV level 3...just for kicks...

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[Flew]

Brett, I agree that the first would have been better without the feeder, but I still like the shot a lot. Both are very nice. As Gordon said, you are way ahead of most of us in the chase for the perfect hummer shot. As to low keeper rate, I think that is pretty much par for the course when you are learning to shoot these quick little guys. :wink: