Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Black-chinned Hummingbird II

Here is another shot from last Thursday of a female black-chinned hummingbird taken in my backyard. I spent a little more time this morning trying to get some more images, but the hummers were not cooperating. They spent the whole time I was out there chasing each other around, once one would get anywhere near my setup, the other would come swooping down from the tree and off they would go again. They are really fun to watch though, especially when they try to scare off the bigger yard birds.

Image Data:
1/2500s. | f/8 | ISO 500 | Fill Flash
click image to view larger size.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Black-chinned Hummingbird

After a very busy June and equally the same first half of July, things are finally starting to slow down a bit and for the first time in over a month, I was able to get out with my camera yesterday morning in the backyard to work with the hummingbird visiting the garden. This female Black-chinned hummer has been coming to my hummingbird designated garden for about a month now and up until yesterday I have not had the time to try and photograph it. So, I was very happy to spend a little time working on a simple setup. I cut off a small branch from the hummingbirds favorite plant in the garden, which is a Fire Bush, and attached it to a old cheap tripod using techniques from Alan Murphy's Guide to Songbird Set-up Photography and placed it right next to the bush but where I could get a good clean background. When the hummingbird arrived at the garden my branch was the first one she visited and I was able to get some pretty good images. It is feels great to be photographing again!

Image Data:
1/2500s. | f/8 | ISO 500 | Fill Flash
click image to view larger size.