Female violet sabrewing hummingbird

[Greg Basco]

Hi to all. I've been experimenting with different lighting and backgrounds for my hummingbirds. I'm going for plenty of texture, strong backlight, and a bit of shadow to keep things natural yet still interesting in terms of the illumination. Hopefully I've succeeded. I was happy with the composition and also to get good detail in both the black and the white tail feathers, always a challenge for this species.

This is a female violet sabrewing visiting some begonia flowers on my front porch here in Costa Rica.

http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/blogphotos/hummingbird2feb09.jpg

Tech info: Canon 5D, Canon 300 mm f2.8, 25 mm ext. tube, f13, 1/160, ISO 320, tripod, cable release, Canon flashes set at 1/16 power, fabric background based on natural OOF backgrounds I've achieved in other bird photography here

[Ramon M. Casares]

STUNNING lightning and pose! Great comp too Greg, lovely BG, detail and coors, you could try to tone down the whites, but this is one terrific shot! Congratualtions!

[Rene Quenneville]

The "balet dancer" pose is fantastic. Great overall picture, well composed and sharp.

[Philip Pietri]

Hummingbirds sure do know how to pose! The fanned tail is incredible and the green on the bird is the perfect accent considering your smooth and rich green background. I might dodge the catch-light in the eye a tad. Beautiful composition.

[c.w. moynihan]

The perfect bg Greg..."El Naturale". A bg I wished we used more in Costa Rica 2008. Cheers mate !

[Juan Aragonés]

Greg you are lucky for having these beauties visiting your porch. Mine only receives visits of common sparrows (oh, and the postman, of course :-D). I agree with Ramón about the whites. The bird´s pose couldn´t be better and I love your set up. Very good job with the "colibrís"

[Keith Bauer]

Hi Greg: Very nice image. the bird pose is very nice. Great detail. I'd love to see a bit more variance in the background color. Just a touch of variance would add a great deal to a very fine image.

[Ron Day]

Wonderful detail, exposure & background. A real beauty, Greg!

[Blake Shadle]

Killer image, Greg. Excellent composition, exposure and sharpness. I think the image might be stronger without the leaves entering the left-middle of the frame. Great work.