Crowned woodnymph pollinating Sanchezia

Hi to all. I've been busy with a few groups doing hummingbird workshops here in Costa Rica, and I don't really shoot while taking care of clients. But I have to admit that it's tough:), so after finishing up the groups I just had to get out and make some images of my own!

I had wanted a vertical image of a male crowned woodnymph pollinating a Sanchezia (a native plant in the Acanthaceae family that populates light gaps in the forest here) flower for quite a while and think I finally pulled it off. I have a few similar horizontals from this session as well but decided to share the vertical here. I set up the lighting to give a bit of shadow and texture for a natural, non-flashed look -- hopefully I succeeded. I appreciate any comments and/or suggestions.

http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/...ymphforums.jpg

Tech info: Canon 5D, Tokina 80-200 f2.8 lens, multiple Canon 430 EX Speedlites, f16, 1/200, ISO 250, tripod, cable release. Full-frame, only post-processing is a bit of NR on the background with Neat Image, a few points of added vibrance and saturation in Lightroom, and cloning of one catchlight in the eye in PS.

Cheers from Costa Rica,
Greg Basco

Greg: I like this very much. The colors in the image are striking. Exposure looks great. I might crop just a little bit from the top. Keep those flashes warmed up..... Only a few more days :-)

Hi Greg, I love the image design. Was this a cut flower set-up? Love the wing position. The bird's head is angled away and the purples and greens are a bit dark and a bit over-SATed.

Hi Greg, First and most importantly, I like this this image very much. The composition is pleasing. If this were mine I might be tempted to eliminate just enough of the thin yellow bit of the flower that touches the bird head to create some separation. Thanks for sharing.

Amazing colours in this, and I would love to test my ability to capture one of these guys. Im amazed you have frozen the wings with a ss of only 1/200. Well captured Greg.

This one I like and I don't think there is much to change.


Phil's suggestion about the "thin yellow bit" is something to consider though, an alternative to removing it may be to select it and transform it a bit to get the separation.

Well done!

Really like this, apart from the slight over-saturated greens of the BG.
Lovely pose.

Love the comp, great pose, BG, light, expisure, detail, and colors! Everything is A+ to me! Congrats!

Outstanding image with excellent everything !!!!! Love it !!!!

My kind of hummer comp for sure. NOt sure about the Sats as I have never seen one of these jewels.
Lou

Greg
very nicely done. excellent composition - you did well to control the reds and yellows
i suspect more of the flash was aimed/centred at upper/top flowers , also explaining perhaps why the HB is slightly darker. you could easily fix with a curves adjustment
still one i'd be happy with any day
Peter

Stuart:

The wings were frozen by the very brief duration of the multiple flashes at low power settings, the camera shutter speed only effected the ambient exposure for the background.

Randy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Randy Stout

Stuart: The wings were frozen by the very brief duration of the multiple flashes at low power settings, the camera shutter speed only effected the ambient exposure for the background.
Randy

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Nice try Randy but if the BKGR is not lit by at least one flash it will be black <smile> I would recommend a copy of Linda's High Speed Flash Hummingbird Guide if you are gonna be teaching folks how to do it :) :D :)

Hi, and thanks for everyone's comments. Looks like there might be some monitor discrepancy going on here as I checked everything in camera and later on my laptop in terms of the exposure and colors for this guy. At least on my screen it certainly appears as it would when a nice bit of sunlight hits one of these beautiful hummers. I will check on some other monitors at some point to see if I get different results but I've seen these guys a lot and it seems pretty faithful to reality in my experience.

Randy, Arthur is right about the background. For tropical hummers, mixing ambient and flash is difficult because of the generally low light levels here. Thus I used a a 24x36" print on matte paper of out of focus rainforest vegetation and put one flash on that. Stuart, that means that the actual exposure for this image (camera shutter speed notwithstanding) was the duration of the flash, e.g., somewhere around 1/15000th of a second.

Finally, regarding the yellow thing touching the bird's head, I understand Phil and Kim's position but I was actually thrilled to include this as it's the stigma of the flower. I really wanted a (hopefully!) artistic photo of pollination in action, and having the stigma touching the bird's head to my eye illustrates how this occurs.

Arthur, I wish I could say I waited for three days at a flower for this to happen but that's not the case. This is a setup in a forest with a cut flower but the bird is of course wild and comes to the flower of his own free will!

Cheers,
Greg

Thanks for the confirmation Greg. No sugar water on the flower???

Arthur, definitely plenty of sugar water (good on pancakes too) but only right in the actual flower where I wanted him to go so that I could pre-focus manually in order to preserve the composition. I find that if I go to AF and Servo mode I end up chasing the bird around and ruining the composition that I have in mind.

Cheers,
Greg

Your set-up is beautiful and the explanation of technique is why BPN is the best spot on the net. Period.

I love the image, your reasoning for the stamen remaining touching the crown all make sense to me. The colors are magnificent. This is A+ from me as well. Thanks for posting this fabulous image mate. :)

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Originally Posted by Greg Basco

Arthur, definitely plenty of sugar water (good on pancakes too) but only right in the actual flower where I wanted him to go so that I could pre-focus manually in order to preserve the composition. I find that if I go to AF and Servo mode I end up chasing the bird around and ruining the composition that I have in mind. Cheers, Greg

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If the bird came to the flower of his own free will I am guessinmg that its free will was influenced a bit by the sugar water :) :) :)

I often pre-focus manually when we are using flowers at the set-up. With sugar water of course!

I really like the composition of this photo also. And I'll second the comment about the stamen -- the first thing I thought was "wow -- pollination structures doing what they are supposed to do!" I'd say keep it.

I should have mentioned that I like the stamen too. Folks who would like to learn everything that there is to know about high speed flash hummingbird photography should get a copy of Linda Robbins' amazing guide (On CD): http://www.birdsasart.com/hummingbirdguide.htm I am headed to the office computer right now for the final edit of the first update (which is quite extensive). The updates are free and sent via e-mail.

Hi, for what it's worth, I just wanted to clarify that I believe the flower part touching this hummingbird's head is indeed the stigma (female part; pollen receptor) rather than the stamen (male part). I'll have to take a good look at one of these flowers next time I see one to be sure! But either way, I'm glad that people appreciated the value in the interaction.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

Congrats Greg on such great work! Very inspirational.

I agree with Akos, this is the best place on the internet to learn digital photography.