A New York Hummingbird

[Beth Goffe]

This little guy (or girl) was perched in a nice patch of jewelweed in Strawberry Fields at Central Park. It sat on this stalk for several minutes in this position looking upward. Eventually, I was able to spy its companion much higher up in a tree above the bird. It finally flew off with its friend without changing position so this was the best I could get. I'm pleased as this is my first decent hummer image. Does the orange jewelweed blossom detract from the image? I had a difficult time toning it down without causing halos.

http://www.pbase.com/bgoffe/image/102628232/original.jpg

40D, 400 f5.6, 1/200s, f/5.6, EC 0, ISO 800 handheld

[Doug Brown]

Hi Beth. Congrats on your first decent hummer. Sharpness is good but the angle is a bit steep. I find the orange spot a bit of a distraction. Thanks for posting!

[Ramon M. Casares]

Agree 100% with Doug's comment, but also the details and sharpness as light are very very nice!

[Linda Robbins]

Good spotting to find this tiny female ruby-throated hummingbird! In this pose, she looks as if she is going to leave at any second with that alert posture and wide eye. Sharpness is good, and you made a good decision to raise your ISO to 800 so that you would get 1/200 sec. A little more depth of field would have been nice, but in the low light conditons your settings were about as good as it was going to get., especially hand holding, Hope you get more chances to photograph these tiny wonders.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Agree with Doug's comments but a big congratulations Beth on this image with excellent detail and eye contact. Look forward to seeing more. Thanks for sharing.

[Maxis Gamez]

Exactly what Doug said. IMO.