NO SUMMER WITHOUT HUMMERS

Juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird

I can’t let the summer go by without making a few pictures of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. I guess the birds who have been in our woods during the breeding season have moved on already and it seems we see different hummers every day now on their way south to Central America. However, this juvenile defended one of the hummingbird feeders fiercely and didn’t let any other bird even come close all afternoon.

I experimented quite a bit today with different exposure times or exposure compensation for the background and used also the Westscott FJ80 II speed light. In the picture above the bird was backlit and I froze the hummer at 1/4000s and let the translucency of the wings tell the story. The sun didn’t hit the front element of the lens directly because I shot from underneath the roof of our porch. A hint of flash made sure the body of the bird got some light as well.

The photo below was shot three hours later, about mid afternoon, when the sunlight wasn’t as harsh anymore. With almost the same settings (f/8, ISO8000, -1EV) but a shutter speed of only 1/400s the result was totally different. Of course, with such a slow shutter the wings are not frozen, which I actually prefer in most of my photos of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light, Westscott Magnetic diffusion dome

IT’S HERE NOW

First snow fall, shot from my office window. 

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, FTZ adapter, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,   @ 145 mm, 1/30 s, f/16, ISO 1000

Finally we got our first real snow fall this season today. It was later than ever before within the last 18 years since we live here on the bluffs along the Little Maquoketa River Valley. It took me a while to find the right exposure time that makes the fast blowing snow visible and make it part of the story. I started in the woods behind the house with exposure times, between 1/10s and 5 seconds, and this was definitely too long for making the snow trails visible. The golden medium was found at about 1/30s, while the snow fall had intensified and I was shooting from my office window. Winter and snow means cold and the color that carries this message is blue. I played with white balance settings between 4000 and 5000 Kelvin and for this picture ended up with about 4150 K, giving the scene a nice blue tint.

WAYS TO TELL THE STORY

Ruby-throated Hummingbird -------

The number of hummingbirds has suddenly increased and this is a sure sign that another generation has left the nest and tries to make a living between hundreds of flowers and our hummingbird feeders around the house. Some photographers aim to freeze every feather and shoot with extremely short exposure times. I’m in the other camp, I prefer to tell the story of constant, very fast movement and I let the blur of the wings just doing that. Both ways are valid and just the result of different story telling efforts. This image was made with an exposure time of 1/1000 s. Not really slow, although still not fast enough to freeze the wings, but just the way I wanted it.