A first year ruby-throated hummingbird preparing to turn on the after-burners after feeding at a hosta flower.
Z9 600mm f4 (1/200 sec F20 Iso 200 4 flashes at 1/16th power) crop for comp Levels.
Hi, Jim. I love hummingbird photos. Elegance is always present, as in the case of your photo. The clean background works beautifully here. I must say I am amazed at the sharpness you obtained with such a low shutter speed of 1/200. My one suggestion to make this an even better photo would be some minor work on the flowers: reduce the saturation a little (especially the buds) as well as make them a bit less sharp. They appear very contrasty against that opposing background.
Thank you Egidio. The flashes do all the work and with a flash duration of 1/10,000th of a second freezes the motion. I will look into lowering the contrast on the flower and stem. You provided an excellent critique and I once again thank you for your suggested edits…Jim
Great hummer shot Jim; excellent sharpness, background, and color. Always impressed when someone uses flash to freeze motion. Don’t know if its possible, but a little blur in the wing would be a nice touch actually.
A very nice Hummingbird photo, Jim! Flash photos for wildlife is something I have never tried but I can sure see the benefit when shooting hummingbirds! This shot has excellent colors and a perfect exposure. The only thing I could suggest would be a slightly tighter crop as the mono-color background is just dead space anyway. It would put more focus on the bird and the buds also. Well done!
