Rufous Hummingbird

[Nancy Bell]

No set-up other than 2 feeders and a large bush the hummers like to perch on. I rest my camera on the porch railing and wait for a good pose. Most of the action happens pre-dawn at 5:45 am until about 6:15am. Once the first rays of the sun appears the action really slows down. A cup of coffee helps !

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 400mm f4 DO IS, ISO 1600, f4, 1/160.

[Randy Stout]

Nancy:

Such a round little hummer, with lovely colors in the gorget, pleasant BG, good angle in frame, and well scaled perch.

Well exposed and sharp.

The only negative for me is the amount of noise visible in the darker plumage and bill.

I also might consider softening the leaf by the tail, try to get its luminosity closer to the lower leaf.

Cheers

Randy

[Don Nelson]

Iagree with Randy about the dark plant behind the rear.
In addition, if this were mine, I'd do a little more sharpening, a little noise cleanup. and fix the catchlight in the eye. Back (rear side) is OOF, so can't be sharpened, but the noise can be lightly cleaned up here and elsewhere.
Here's a repost, hope you like it (obviously this was done on your jpeg -- would have been better on your original RAW)

Very nice perched Rufous. You were lucky to get so close!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

I agree with the comments from Don and Randy, and might also consider a tighter crop from the top and bottom and maybe a looser crop from the right side.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Lovely looking hummer, I really like the pose, great perch, and real nice background.
Well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, perch and BG. Dons repost brings out the potential of this image. Well done Nancy.

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a great plump pose. Nicve thin perch, and good BG. I actually like the squarish comp here, and the leaf doesn't bother me...I just wish it wasn't so close to the subject.

[Nancy Bell]

Your suggestions and comments are much appreciated. I will rework the image and try to incorporate the ideas. As far as noise, I much prefer not to use ISO 1600. I find ISO 1250 to be about as high as I like to use on this type of image and am trying to be patient and now wait for a bit more light.