Juvenile male green-crowned brilliant at Heliconia

[Greg Basco]

Hi, I thought I'd share a red and green photo since it's holiday season. Green-crowned brilliants often perch while feeding so I was looking to get him just as he was landing on this Heliconia bract to feed. The head angle could be a touch better on this one but I still think the image works. I placed the flashes for a lighting scheme that I think looks natural but has a bit of drama to it as well with the use of some backlight. To my eye, it's pretty close to the filtered sunlight that we get in cloud forests here on certain days.

I'll be interested to read your thoughts.

83983

Tech: Canon 7D, Canon 500 mm, f13, 1/200, ISO 250, 4 Canon Speedlites, ST-E2 flash transmitter, tripod

Post: about 95% of full-frame, cloned one catchlight from bird's eye, had to reduce to 57 quality on jpeg to meet 200 kb file size limit so hopefully it didn't suffer too much

Setup: Flower baited with sugar water near feeder, artificial background lit with one of the four flashes

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Doug Brown]

Lighting looks totally natural Greg, and the extended foot along with the perfect wing position really make this image. Of course the Heliconia is way cool!

[Mital Patel]

extremely macro type image. loved the sharp focus on every part of the image. the only thing i find here is that that curve behind the wing is a bit distraction to me which really grabs attention from focus point.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

It's a beautiful bird and cool looking plant. I like the bird position and sharpness/details, green and red looks great. Very good lightning scheme. Excellent image!

[Randy Stout]

Greg:

Striking image because of the colors, mix of flash and backlighting, detail in perch, fun pose, one footed perch of bird. Like Mital, I was struck by the circular, lighter areas on the BG.

As much as I like the perch, I might try a version with some of the plant cropped away from the left. It is such a colorful and detailed subject that it tends to overpower the hummer a bit.

Very seasonal looking (color wise that is)

Cheers

Randy

[Chris van Rooyen]

Very effective and brilliantly executed. I really enjoy the Heliconia and the contrast between the red and green.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Greg, not only is the image design great, but so are the colors, raised foot and the raised wings. Sharpness is off the charts. This one made my day. One heck of a shot.

[Christopher Marek]

Greg

Wonderful execution on this. I will be studying it for a good while. I am guessing your flashes were quite closely placed, say no more than 15 inches away all around. Two from the front and one from semi-behind the bird.

I have been to Costa Rica and Peru many times. I always bring with me several humming bird feeders and get no visits at all. All the while I see and hear them all about me.

[RAM MALLYA]

Superb shot here loved the flowers ,bird and sharpness .

[Kiran Poonacha]

beautiful colours in the frame Greg, Loved the way the bird in resting its feet and feeding, adds well...

[James Salywoda]

Gorgeous all around image Greg. A perfect flash set up.

[Greg Basco]

Hi, and thanks very much to everyone for your comments!

Cheers,
Greg Basco