Friday, June 8, 2012

Allen's hummingbirds

At least I think that's what these are. There is a pair that we noticed yesterday calling and flitting in our backyard. Gayle got out her camera and got some shots of the two (one of them in flight) on our hummingbird feeder. In between their darting in and out of our magnolia one of the them repeatedly perched on our clothes line. So Gayle told me to get out my camera and try to get some shots in, too.

It was in early evening and I wasn't quite sure how clear any picture would turn out -- even after raising my camera's ISO setting as high as I dared (ISO 1000) without beginning to see noise artifacts. I walked out into the backyard, then slowly approached a sago palm that grows next to the clothes line. I got to within a few feet of the hummer on the clothes line and took a lot of shots. Most of them were no good, but I liked the look of the following pictures:

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These are all close crops of the original images, so it looks like I'm much closer than I really was.

The mating behavior continued on all day today. I suspect we may find a nest in the near future, which would be too cool.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 70-200mm VR zoom; aperture-priority, with aperture set at f/4; camera chose shutter speed of 1/100 second at ISO 1000; center-weighted metered; -0.7 exposure compensation; auto white balance; normal JPG.)
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9 comments:

  1. genjiJune 9, 2012 at 4:47 AM

    Very nice shots. I recently got shots of our local hummngbirds, and they are not nearly so colorful as your species.

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    1. UnknownJune 9, 2012 at 2:31 PM

      i haven't tried taking pictures of hummers for at least four years. i hope i don't bother them enough to make them stop what they're doing.

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  2. houndstoothJune 9, 2012 at 1:57 PM

    Those shots are beautiful! I just saw some hummingbirds at our flowers here, but I'm not sure I'd ever be able to get close enough to get a good picture of them. It would be really cool if you did find a nest!

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    1. UnknownJune 9, 2012 at 2:32 PM

      years ago i did find one nest that i think had been made in trees next to a coiled garden hose. i had no idea that there was one there until i saw it on the ground.

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  3. Greyhounds CAN SitJune 10, 2012 at 3:11 AM

    What beautiful birds. We don't have any pretty (as in colourful) birds where I live. I can imagine hummingbirds would be such a challenge to photograph, maybe even more difficult than a running greyhound? Hope they do nest so we can see some more lovely photos soon:)

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  4. Kristin G.June 11, 2012 at 6:17 PM

    Such amazing, gorgeous creatures. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. UnknownJune 13, 2012 at 10:41 PM

      you're welcome, kristin. i never get tired of watching them.

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  5. MichelleJune 14, 2012 at 5:28 PM

    Beautiful shots! Hummingbirds are amazing. :)

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    1. UnknownJune 17, 2012 at 11:36 AM

      thanks, michellle. we seem to be getting another specie drinking out of our feeder by our front door, so i'll have to try and catch that one, too.

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