Hummingbirds 2013

It's hummingbird season again so I spent a little time this afternoon and caught a few.
D800; 70-300mm; ISO 800 - 1600; f-5.6

Excellent Dave!!! Great shots....

Pat in NH

good shots Dave, where did you go to get them?

awesome shots - I love all of them

Great set,Dave One and all.

Those are wonderful. What shutter speed were you using to stop the wings?

Dave, those really beautiful shots. Such candid shots, you would almost think they were posing for you.

I have hummingbirds around my place, too. I was thinking of setting up some food station for them.

After seeing your images, I know what I'll be doing now.
What was your typical focal length - 200mm?

Thanks for the inspiration!

Cheers

I agree, great shots! I'm also curious on the shutter speed needed to get awesome shots like that! Way to go!

Thanks all. I shot these at my neighbors house. They have several feeders in their yard and gangs of 20 or more birds will show up at one time and buzz around everywhere. You'd be surprised how much noise these little tiny birds can make.

As for focal length, I tried to be a 300mm whenever possible. I would watch with the lens at 70 and once I spied a bird I could bring it to 300mm and start shooting.

For shutter speeds, they ranged from 1/650 all the way up to 1/8000. I had the camera at f-1600 in the morning and as more light came on the bushes I lowered to 1250 and then 800. Any slower and you'll end up with a blur where the wings should be.

Wow! those are excellent Dave!

Very nice good job

I like them all Dave. Nice job!

Way cool!!!!!

Excellent hummingbird shots!

sent from my galaxy tab 2

Dave_W said:

Thanks all. I shot these at my neighbors house. They have several feeders in their yard and gangs of 20 or more birds will show up at one time and buzz around everywhere. You'd be surprised how much noise these little tiny birds can make.

As for focal length, I tried to be a 300mm whenever possible. I would watch with the lens at 70 and once I spied a bird I could bring it to 300mm and start shooting.

For shutter speeds, they ranged from 1/650 all the way up to 1/8000. I had the camera at f-1600 in the morning and as more light came on the bushes I lowered to 1250 and then 800. Any slower and you'll end up with a blur where the wings should be.

Click to expand...

Great photos

I like a little bit of blur in the wings, for me its kind of like seeing a wheel on a racing car blurred

Ruby throated Hummer, Cape May Court House, nJ.

I revisited my neighbors yard a few days ago and have a new batch of hummers.

Wow those are nice, especially considering how difficult it is to freeze one of these guys in a shot.

Oh, I forgot one

Beautiful shots. Near perfect!