female green thorntail pollinating tropical blueberry

[Greg Basco]

Hi, I hope people aren't tired of hummingbirds from me! But I set out the other day to make an image that I've really wanted for a while -- a green thorntail hummingbird pollinating Cavendishia, a native cloud forest epiphyte that belongs to the blueberry family (Ericaceae). And I wanted it against a blue sky, just like you might see on a hike along a cloud forest edge during the dry season here.

This is the result. I welcome all comments/suggestions!



Tech: Canon 5D, Tokina 80-200 f2.8 zoom, f11, 1/160, ISO 320, multiple flash, only post-processing is a saturation bump, a slight darkening of the eye, and a very slight crop (not happy about having to do that but it did improve the image :()

[Paul Lagasi]

Never get tired of these little guys, plant is in perfect focus..I might have boosted my iso to get more shutter speed, hummer seems a bit soft (not sure if its Shutter or DOF)....but I'd love to have this one in my collection...I spent a great week in Jaco area, another week near Arenal Volcano..birded/photgraphed with Randall Ortega......can't wait to get back there some day....paul

[Randy Stout]

Greg:

I love all the hummer pictures, so keep them coming.

I find this one a bit too bright for my taste, and I am bothered somewhat by all the reflections of the leaves.

I don't know how it would work with the flashes, but I wonder if a polarizer could be used here as is often the case for landscape work, to knock down reflections off of the leaves? Perhaps it would also eliminate the nice colors from the hummer as well?

The plant is so prominent, partly because of the light reflections, that it seems more the subject than the hummer, so perhaps some cropping from the left.

I love the vision, not the usual artificial hummer background.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Tony Whitehead]

I like the sky BG and bird but have to agree with Randy that the flash on the plant is making it very dominant in the image.

[Jasper Doest]

Hi Greg, please keep 'm coming...love those little critters! The flashlight does seem a bit harsh here, especially as it appears in the leaves. I think that by cutting down on the flash the overall image would have gotten softer, more pleasing feel. The pose is stunning!

[Greg Basco]

Hi, and thanks for the comments. Paul, I'm not sure what is going on with the sharpness. I checked at 1:1, and the bird is right on. Randy, in terms of the overall brightness of the image, this isn't the look I normally go for, but it is what I wanted for this particular image (sunny, dry season, cloud forest day). That said, I agree with all of you on toning down the flash on the plant. It has really waxy leaves, so I may think about some diffusers next time I work with it. In terms of composition, I did want this to be a mini-environmental portrait with a strong composition, so in this case the hummingbird was actually meant to be a compositional anchor that filled the lower right of the frame. And I also wanted to show a bit of scale -- how small this species actually is. So, probably close to successful here, but I'll definitely have to think about toning down the flash on this plant for future. Randy, just a note, a polarizer would do the trick in terms of cutting the glare, but the loss of light would cause problems in terms of the resulting speed. The shutter speed is fixed (no natural light), so I would either have to up the power of the flashes (from 1/16 to 1/4) or raise the ISO.

Thanks!
Greg