I have not had much luck in being able to quit photographing these guys and they are quite used to my presence. I tried a Hosta flower and Jenny has a smaller variety with small, light purple flowers. I like the pose that this immature male ruby-throated provided for me.
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Z9 600mm f4 (1/200 sec. at f18, ISO=200) 3 flashes on subject, 1 on BG at 1/16 power. Levels, shadows & highlights, brightness & contrast, Topaz DeNoise for initial sharpening. I had to remove an OOF wasp which was in the upper LH portion of the photo…
Well I’m glad you keep at it. Your efforts with the set up are heroic and I’m not sure I’m inclined to try it so it’s a treat to see. I really like the tail here, I don’t think I have any decent shots with the tail fanned out like that. Ours might be gone by now. Have only seen one in the last few days. You could crop this more if you wanted. The whole arc of the hosta stem might not be needed.
What a series Jim. You’ve got good eye contact, a fanned out tail, the subject licking it’s lips looking right at that flower and those tiny feet tucked right up underneath. I love the wing position where they are curled under and we are seeing just the edge of them. Good background as well. The flower looks great and is nice and sharp. I can see why you are addicted. Well done.
Another gem, I do like the bird being relatively small in the frame, and the flower as its ‘goal’ nicely placed in the composition as well. No nits from me . Cheers, Hans
I don’t think you should even think about quitting! This is another gem of pose and detail! For my taste, I agree with @Kris_Smith that some crop from the right to remove some of the stem could be good, but things like that are purely different tastes.
Thank you @Kris_Smith , @Allen_Brooks , @David_Haynes , @Diane_Miller , @Hans_Overduin for your comments. I have two that are still visiting my feeders and I have been seeing new migrants that are arriving right at dusk. They fly low to the ground and are very silent to avoid detection. A few rufous hummingbirds are showing up now so I hope to catch one of that species at my bait flowers. I will work up a tighter crop to get rid of that extra stem on the right.
Nice capture Jim and I like this composition showing a good bit of the bend in the stem. Wings seem to be in the classic figure eight pattern here. Well done image.
There are still a few ruby-throats hanging around here fattening up for migration but I ran out of nectar flowers a long time ago - so I’ll just have to enjoy them without photographing I guess. Good to see you still at it.
. Cheers, Hans
- so I’ll just have to enjoy them without photographing I guess. Good to see you still at it.