Travelling to Savegre, Costa Rica

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Everyone!
I took this on the Doug/Greg Costa Rica trip when we stopped for a coffee break. Much to our delight there were humming birds all around and this is my first ever humming bird 'keeper'...:D
50D 300 2.8 + 1.4 TC
ISO 800
F4 1/125 sec
Exp comp @ +1
Hand held
Cloned out part of a flower that intesected his beak - sorry Greg - I was so excited to see humming birds that I forgot to check the BG...:(
I realise that the bird is very centred but I quite like it framed as is.
Thanks for looking!
Best to all,
Nicki

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Nicki, I would keep this too. Love the light, colours, and pose. Comp wise, I would take off from the right,( to the edge of the leaves ), and maybe bring in from the left to create a vertical crop. I would also remove the hanging flower above his head. Now go back and get one in flight. LOL.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nicki, beautiful subject you have here. It's nice to see a hummingbird at rest once in a while. I would definitely crop at right, at about half the space there. Too bad about the flower close to the head and the OOF ones covering the wingtips. Is there a touch too much magenta? Keep them coming - I've enjoyed the various Costa Rica postings!!

[Randy Stout]

Nicki:

I took a minute to do a couple of tweaks on your lovely hummer. Most are just personal taste as far as cropping, eliminating the flower over his head. I did remove the magenta cast(mentioned by Daniel), which I think opens the image up a bit, and to my eye at least looks more natural.

Just an option to consider.

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Nikki, Like the image. Had you moved one big stop to your left you would have solved several problems at once. Can you tell me which ones?

While I would absolutely crop from behind the bird (the empty space there does nothing for the image; nobody gives a rat's _ ss about empty space BEHIND the bird. Randy, however, overdid it with his crop from the left. The flowers there are fantabulous.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Guys!
Thank you all very much for your comments and suggestions and Randy, thank you for taking the time to do the repost. I, too, would not crop from the left, but what does anyone think about cloning out the flower above the bird's head?
Artie, had I taken a step to the left I would not have had the flower behind the bird's head, neither would I have had the foliage covering the tail. Also, the branch that the bird is perched on would have filled more of the right side of the frame, thus creating a more balanced image. I'm sure that there must be other things as well...!!:o
Stuart, I'll post a hummer-in-flight soon...:D
Once again, thanks for all the input!
Best ,
Nicki

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle, head angle, BG and flowers. The OOF one is distracting but not much you can do about it. As for the crop, I could see this also as a vertical. I would run NR on the BG.

[Dan Brown]

Hi Nicki. Very successful Fiery-throated Hummingbird (male) shot. You forgot to mention that if you had stepped to the left, you would have fallen into the flowers and down the cliff!:D

[Doug Brown]

Good point Dan, and congrats on your first (of many) hummers Nicki! I like what Randy did with the color cast, but agree that I'd leave more canvas on the left. I don't think I'd mind the flower above its head if it weren't so close. I'd probably sharpen it just a little more. I never did get a decent image of this species, so congrats to you!

[Fabs Forns]

Good advise given above and the repost took good care of the cast. Good thing to take advantage of the coffee stops :)

[Doug Brown]

Good thing to take advantage of the coffee stops :)

I'm not a coffee drinker, but everyone really liked the coffee on the trip!

[Greg Basco]

Nicki, nice shot of this fiery-throated. I know that I made that a fairly quick stop so we were working under a bit of pressure. I think you passed Arthur's quiz with flying colors, though I'm glad Dan also is considering your safety.

By the way, a helicopter went down in this area a few days ago loaded with around 350 K of cocaine from a cartel in Sinaloa, Mexico. Had we been there earlier this week we could have had an extra kick to our coffee!

Cheers,
Greg

[Arthur Morris]

Yes Nikki, You passed with flying flowers, I mean flying colors.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hi Nicki!

Very nice image of this guy. I agree about not cloning the flower since I believe it adds to your composition.

The color cast is not a big problem and I'm sure you can fix it.

Please keep them coming, I want to see more!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Everyone and thanks so much for all the input.
Dan, I had quite forgotten about the cliff - not to mention the fog that was starting to envelop us!!! Greg, interesting story about the helicopter crash...
Juan Carlos, I'll post some more for you later - hope to meet up wth you sometime in CR!
best to you all,
Nicki