First Hummers

scottV

My first try at shooting these little guys. It was in a shady area with my 100-400 lens, no flash. This one was sitting on the branch and allowed me to get within about 2 meters. What techniques are used to get the frozen in flight shots? I had to set the iso to 400 just to stay in the 1/100 range, any movement or slight breeze would blur everything.

dbaker1221

teriffic captures Scott . great color
You're gonna need good light to stop their wings.. I shot some of mine at 1/2000 & still have motion. I'm thinking 1/4000 will do it but i'll need to do it with my 200mm 2.8.

Harv

Nice captures. Gorgeouos colours on these little guys.

I don't think you will be able to freeze the wings of a hummingbird with shutteer speed alone. You will likely need to use flash with a very short flash duration. Here is a link to thread that will give you the information that you need...

http://www.pixel-shooter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129

I hope this helps.

Shasoc

Very nice captures with lovely color.

schmoo

Those guys have legs? I thought I'd read that hummingbirds couldn't walk because they barely had legs or something like that.

Anyway, great captures and sitting on the branch like that they almost look like "normal" birds.

scottV

thanks everybody, and thanks for the link Harv... going to try it out this weekend.

goofry

The best shots I have gotten lately have been shot at 3200 iso, 1/2000 or 1/4000 along with my 430ex flash set to high speed mode. I know the 1/4000 is much faster than the flash, but it does help. Even at those speeds, I have seen a little blur from these guys.

I love the colors on the little guy you captured. All I keep getting lately is the females with less color. They are so agressive, the male only comes around for a very short period and then I don't see him for hours.

Nice shots!

Maestro

Awesome captures of a very colorful hummer!