Hummingbird Sitting
Hummingbirds pretty much need to be sitting for me to get a photograph that is acceptable. This is an Anna’s Hummingbird which overwinter in parts of southern British Columbia, but with few geographical exceptions, only with help from humans. They are not migratory, but have extended their range into our area where they can survive thanks in part to the bird feeders, and probably climate change as well. For this species, the angle of the light has to be just right to show off the colour in the head and neck feathers, otherwise they look black.
This photo could be sharper – it is handheld with my shoulder propped against the wall, using the Takumar 200mm/f4 lens at its nearest focal distance of 2.5m. I pre-focussed on the feeder, but might have chosen a better part of the feeder. Manual focussing is getting more difficult through my progressive lenses (glasses that is), but I have never had totally satisfactory results with this lens. I really need to get my mitts on a canon lens of the same focal length for comparison.
This was taken at 1/800th with ISO 1000. The f-stop was not recorded, but was f5.6 or maybe f8. I was anticipating that the bird might hover but not settle while I was so near, which is why I chose the higher ISO and shutter speed. The image is cropped fairly heavily. This was during friday’s pretty bright afternoon, but in the shade next to my house.
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burnt embers 
This is delightful!! Amazing capture 🙂
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Hi Jaunita – thank you so much. They are very endearing birds to have around.
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Wonderful capture of a gorgeous bird. 🙂
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Hi Robin – thank you, and if these birds had a brain, I expect they would thank you too. 🙂 I like the variety of socks in your gravatar, and that they change. Perhaps you are a knitter of socks. And, happy birthday!
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Thank you. 🙂
I don’t knit socks, but hope to learn how to do so soon. My feet became my gravatar a few years ago and I decided I might as well change them to suit the season. It makes it more fun and festive.
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Lots of knitting in this household, my daughter has recently started. And my wife was knitting the heels of socks for her mother who was sick and knitting because she was not very mobile – her mother made the toes and ankles but did not feel like following the instructions for the heel, so the toes would come to our house, get ankles added and go back to her house. A pair of socks got knit every week that way! Anyway, that got my wife back into knitting and now she is making socks from toe to top – I am wearing a pair right this minute and they would make a lovely picture for a gravatar 🙂 I like that you have your feet up in your gravatar – says so much but with a very simple image.
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I love your composition here, and how it showcases the gorgeous colors and details in this fine little feathered friends feathers! What a challenging photo to capture; I think you did a top drawer job of it, my friend.
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Thank you so much Toad. This guy is a bit of a poser I think. He turned his best side to the best angle for showing off his colours and looked good for it. You could swear he had looked through a viewfinder more than a few times.
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Nice!
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Danita! Thanks!
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I just checked and found British Columbia is blessed with eight species of hummers. We only have Ruby-Throated ones in Michigan and they leave us from late August until May. Flying jewels, they are. The most interesting fact about them is that they have to enter torpor each night to slow their metabolism or they might starve to death by dawn. During their daytime activites their heartbeat is almost as rapid as their wings in flight. This is a nice portrait. I love the colors and am not troubled by the soft focus. You take what you can get when photographing wildlife.
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Hi Doug. Thanks for looking that up, I knew there were a few species, but not that many. The Anna’s is the only one that does not leave us for the winter, but it must be a pretty tough go of it for them on the really cold winter days. Flying jewels is a perfect description, and their metabolism is astonishing. Sounds like a mini-hibernation every night. Thanks for your kind words about the photo – I really like the pose the bird is in, makes it a much more interesting shot than the others that I took which were all fully sideways. It also helped to show the colour in the head feathers.
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Since I go back quite a few years, my immediate association was to the “RCA Victor Talking logo” – Nipper, the dog, listening to his master’s voice through a fluted speaker from a gramaphone. Totally different elements but similar pose. The neck feathers are like sequins. Beautiful colors. Spectacular shot.
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Hi Barbara – nice to have you back again. What an unexpected association and not one that would have been made from my own experience (I know that logo, but its not in my mental RAM so much as on a slow old hard drive that I don’t access very much, if you know what I mean). I am glad that you like the shot and that it somehow blends with and calls up older memories.
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Great shot, this bird is really very pretty and cute.
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Hi Nandini – they are wonderful little birds with their bright plumage, tiny size and buzzing sound when they fly. Very territorial too, so they are often chasing and yelling at each other. Its nice to have them around all year. That feeder is outside a window next to where we sit all the time so we can watch them. The cat has a special noise she makes when watching them too, thankfully she has never managed to catch one. In fact, she is not much of a birder, which is a good thing.
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Love the plumage on that little hummer! Nice image!
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Hi Mike – welcome to my blog and thanks for your comment. I find it interesting that the coloured feathers at the neck are proportionally so large, I somehow expect them to be smaller, but maybe this is no different than other birds, but less visible on them.
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Illusive little critters to catch, aren’t they? I like the photo. Good detail.
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Good morning Joseph, and thank you. They are pretty wary too, so finding a spot other than a bird feeder to set up for them requires more patience than I possess at the moment.
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There is still quite a lot of detail in this considering all of the difficulties inherent in bird photography. I have given up on it, having never taken a satisfactory image.
I also have progressive lens glasses but I never wear them for photography. Instead i use the diopter adjustment on the camera. HOODMAN makes a neat thing to put over the camera eyepiece for eyeglass wearers. i always had a high regard for the Takumar lens line, too. Did it perform better on the Spotmatic?
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Hi ken – I think its an acceptable photograph, but…. The 200mm lens was never very satisfactory on the Spotmatic, the other lenses were very good. I bought the 200mm used and I have wondered if there is just something about it that is off. I have never had it serviced since I almost never use it, so perhaps a servicing would get everything in alignment and that would fix it – it does need one now as the barrel is a bit stiff on it. But, its a bit of a risk if the true problem is the optics of one of the elements.
I should try the diopter adjustment without my glasses, maybe that would help, though I have an astigmatism and I am not sure it would work.
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