When I started taking photos of the hummingbird I ended up taking 112 shots in just a matter of a few minutes. I was adjusting the aperture and switching from auto and manual focus as I went. I've grown to love the "new fangled" auto-focus on the DSLR's but it just wouldn't focus right all of the time when I was shooting.
After looking at my photos I decided in hind sight the auto focus got about as many right as I did using manual focus so I'm not sure I was any better off using manual focus. Like Paul said in his last comment, I only got a few really good photos out of all of the ones I shot. I am definitely glad I am using digital and not film. Digital has allowed me to shoot things I never would have wasted the money of film and developing on. If you are shooting digital (and I can't imagine why you wouldn't) shoot, shoot, shoot! It's always better to delete something than not have something because you wouldn't press that button a few more times.
Because of the location of the hibiscus and the fact the sun was coming up behind the plant my lighting wasn't ideal for the bird. The back lighting was almost perfect for the flower and I didn't want to use the flash because I thought it might scare off the hummingbird. This predicament left me to do a little post processing on these to get the hummingbird lit a little better.
These are cropped quite a bit to get the close-up I was looking for. I would have really liked to have been using a 400mm or even 500mm lens. I guess I'm going to have to invest in a "Bigma" one of these days.
More great pictures! Were you using a faster shutter speed, you sure got good stop action on the humming bird's wings.
ReplyDeleteYes a Bigma 400-800 f2.8 vr. for about $1,500.00 would suit me just fine too!