Oh, Anna!

[Geoff Shapiro]

I've had a pair of Anna's Hummingbirds overwintering in my backyard and managed to get a few decent images of the male this past Monday. He's a handsome looking guy whose jumpiness has caused my "hit rate" to go way down lately! ;) I got him this time, though...

20D, 300/4 + 1.4x, ISO 200, 1/60 @ f5.6, natural light

http://gshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/_mg_071231_8688.jpg

[Arthur Morris]

Just lovely. The soft light and the detail in the gorget feathers are incredible. As is the sharpness. If there was more on the right, I might have liked seeing it. Where is your backyard?
Later and love, artie

ps: Please give location for each image. Thanks.

[Geoff Shapiro]

Artie - thanks! I should have included more information...

This is about 20 miles south of Portland, Oregon. The hummer is perched on a Rose of Sharon shrub in my backyard. The pair love to feed and then rest on one of two of these shrubs. There is more to the right that I could add back in. Are image reposts allowed (especially within the 24 hour period)?

[Fabs Forns]

Artie - thanks! I should have included more information...

This is about 20 miles south of Portland, Oregon. The hummer is perched on a Rose of Sharon shrub in my backyard. The pair love to feed and then rest on one of two of these shrubs. There is more to the right that I could add back in. Are image reposts allowed (especially within the 24 hour period)?

Yes, Geoff, one repost per thread, on a separate post.

Big welcome and great image! Congratulations :)

[Geoff Shapiro]

Thanks for the welcome, Fabs. It seems like this site is off to a great start and I look forward to posting more. I'll post an image with a different crop tomorrow...

[Jacqui Hendry]

Good Morning Geoff

You are so lucky to get these beauties in your back yard

I absolutely love the stunning colors and detail in the feathers :-)

Jacqui

[Geoff Shapiro]

Jacqui, thank you for looking and for the nice comment.

Meanwhile, for Artie... here is the image before I cropped to square. You'll notice that I did the original crop because this 3:2 aspect ratio image showed up the pruned edge of the branch to the right of the hummer:

http://gshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/_mg_071231_8688-2.jpg

Do you think that cut end detracts enough that I should have cropped it out?

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Geoff,

I too love the color and sharpness of this image. Good job. I think the repost with the added bg elements is even better than the original post. The cut branch doesn't bother me. It would if it were freshly cut with a bright area visible, but not as is.

[Geoff Shapiro]

Jim, thanks for adding your comments. I'll take your opinions as a hint that I should probably have left it as the original uncropped version. I appreciate the advice!

[Arthur Morris]

Two minutes in Photoshop with not many pixels to work with yielded this:

[Geoff Shapiro]

That's pretty good, Artie. The idea of cloning had passed through my mind but I didn't really want to have to start explaining that I'd done some cloning on the image. If we do cloning type touchups does that push the image into the realm of the other forum "Avian, Captive and Hand of Man"?

[Arthur Morris]

Not in my book. I might note, "Some distracting background or other elements have been removed."

later and love, artie

ps; If I had the TIFF, you could never tell... (But I always do tell.)

[Geoff Shapiro]

Great! Thank you for that guidance, Artie.