Rufus Hummingbird

[Rob Monsipapa]

Well, this is my first image submitted for critique and I'm not sure how the image quality is going to show but here it is.

We spend a lot of time camping in Northern Arizona, about 30 miles East of Payson near Woods Canyon Lake. In late May and early June the hummingbirds are migrating north through this area and they are thick. As soon as we arrive i set up two hummingbird feeders between a set of trees. I find loose limbs from the forest floor and strap them on to the trees over arching the feeders and just wait. By the second day these Rufus hummers have staked out the feeders and chased any other competition for their food, away... I stay and shoot all morning as the sun moves throughout the forest trees for the first 4-5 hrs then again as the sun starts to set. It's a blast and we already have plans for this June... Honest feedback, no matter what, is what I'm looking for. And any suggestions on the information / details posted v.s. what you would like to see.
Thanks

Canon 5D MK III
Canon 500mm f4 L with 1.4TC
ISO 1250 and shutter 1/5000 sec
Exposure Compensation -1
Auto white balance
Aperture Priority @ f7.1

Cropped about 25%, Unsharpen mask, slight boost in vibrance in ACR (I use CS6)

Original image posted here: http://www.az-pics.com/Arizona/Wild-...mmer001-X2.jpg

[gail bisson]

Welcome to BPN Rob. I am sure you will learn a lot here as I have.
A very good first post.
Lovely clean BG, head is nice and sharp and nice natural light. The open beak and the nice catch light in the eye add to this image.
My first thought after reading your story was that I would have picked a prettier perch since this was a set-up. Something smaller in diameter for sure with a nice tip. No blunt broken ends.
The comp is a bit square for my taste so I would take a bit off the bottom. But to be honest, of all the parameters we critique in an image, composition is probably the one with the most leeway and subject to personal taste!
There is a bit of a magenta cast in the BG which is easily fixed in CS by going to color balance and reduce the magenta by a point or two.
That's enough from me and I will let others chime in,
Gail

[keith mitchell]

Hello Rob.Very nice first post think you will find this forum very good I know I do, Your humming Bird looks nice and sharp with a nice Bg,think Gail hits the nail on the head re composition this is fine for me.
Keith.

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

Hey Rob, welcome to BPN
Agree with Gail. You've done well to capture a sharp image and the wing position is good too. The left edge of the image has a dark gradient that somehow distracts / confuses my eye (perhaps because of the dark background canvas on the main page), I feel as though subconsciously a clean boundary is expected on the left. Also as the gradient extends near the beak it makes me feel the tip of the beak is not as sharp (although it is). The chest and stomach of the bird is a wee bit too sharpened for my tastes, but that's a very minor point. I also wonder how this image would look in a vertical composition. Overall very well done, kudos!

[Bret Goddard]

I like it, catching one taking off so well is very hard, for me anyhow, Grand job!