Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
The hummingbirds found the iris blooming and gave me a perfect opportunity to enjoy the color and motion of a nice June morning.
anything I can improve
ISO9000
250mm Nikon Z9 100-400 1.4 TC
f/7.1
1/2000sec
NR in LR
Smart Sharpen PS
Simply stunning! This is one of my fave hummingbird photos of all time…the angle of the bird is not what we usually see which is intriguing. I also appreciate the blur in the wings…it seems very natural and “candid” to me. And of course the iris adds spectacular colour and extra texture. The background of green and purple is absolutely stunning as well. Have I used the word stunning too much? I don’t think so!
To be extremely picky I might consider cloning out the partial flower in the bottom right…then I would buy a big house just to hang this on a large wall.
Lovely image Daniel. Very nice pose and I love the hummer peering into the flower with its feet right on the edge. The BG is great - very complimentary. I could see trying another round of noise reduction. Well done.
As said already, this is a beautiful image, Daniel. I too would clone out the partial flower in the lower right (just steal some of that nice soft lavender from the top area). To be nit picky, it does look to me as if the focus were on the flower rather than the hummingbird’s eye, but it’s close enough that it wouldn’t be noticed at a reasonable viewing distance.
Robena,
Thank you for your kind words. This photo was a learning experience for me. I learned to prefocus and be patient. In the background is catmint (Nepeta), part of my wife’s large beautiful perennial garden. The birds prefer the Nepeta but briefly stop on the iris which is only 3-4 meters from the chair I sit in to take photos. So rather than chase them around the garden, I pre-focused on this particular flower and waited until a bird landed for a sip of nectar. I sat for perhaps 20 minutes to get this image. I also suspect that the birds are coming to the iris for a drink of water rather than nectar. They spend much more time on the Nepeta, flitting from small blossom to blossom but on the iris, they land, then dip in for a quick drink, and fly off to different plants in the garden. I learned that prefocusing and waiting is a great technique for getting an unusual image of a hummingbird. I am posting another from the series that shows water droplets spilling from the iris under the feet of the bird.
Dan
Wow! This is a stunning image, Daniel! I saw the second one first. This one to me is perfect! I love how the feet are stretched out looking like he’s about to land on the flower?
Thank you, Vanessa.
Dan
This angle is MUCH better!
Dont know if cloning out is a part of your vocabulary, that RLC could do with some
Really nice,
thank you David
