White-throated Hummingbird

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi everybody, I've been away for a few days, the past two days I've been in the Los Pecanes Inn, located on the Felicaria river in the second section of the Paraná Delta, (Buenos Aires, Argentina) an area designated as Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO and THE place in BA to photograph Hummingbirds and other wonderfull bird species.
This wonderfull White-throated Hummingbird and the other 100 of them were really cooperative :)
Hope you like it. Commetns and Critiques are welcome and apreciated.

1/1000Seg.
F5.0
+2/3
ISO 1000
VERY cloudy day
MarkII
300mm f4
NO flash
Preety much full frame :)

Enjoy.

[Brian Barcelos]

Wow Ramon, the colors are amazing here. I like the blur of the wings also. You probably could have reached out and grabbed him, the hummers around here fly of as soon as I make the slightest movement(I'm jealous) Congratulations.
Brian

[James Shadle]

Ramon,
This an absolutely beautiful speciman!
The background is outstanding(and IMO complementary).
Your subject is sharp and looks well exposed on my monitor.

I could only suggest that a little room at the top might make this an even stronger image.
Congrats,
James

[Stu Bowie]

Ramon, pin sharp, and you have exposed the colours very well. Killer BG, and I would maybe move him down to the LRC. Congrats on an outstanding image.

[Desmond Chan]

Sharp and clear !! Good colors ! Blurred wings don't bother me as that's what we see most of time we see a hummingbird. I also think the top could use more room though. Very good !!

[Juan Aragonés]

Wow Ramón this one is really nice. The BG is outstanding and the sharpness of the hummer really good. love that killer eye and the blurring of the wings. Perfect wing´s position. Another vote here for more room at the top and can´t wait to see more of the images from that trip. :-)

[Kiran Poonacha]

Its a beauty Ramon. I like this very much because we dont have these beauties here. thanks for sharing brother.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions, here's a repost with a bit more room on top, let me know what you think please. :)

[Indranil Sircar]

Love the colors and the background. What I like most is the sharpness. Simply outstanding.

[Kobus Tollig]

Super and Repost much better. Well done on this. Super bg and colour

[Nagesh Mula]

Hi Ramon, Its a very sharp and beautiful picture. Its amazing to see the the kind of pics you take with your 300mm and hence getting close to these birds. It inspires me to do even better with my 100-400mm.

I would really like to take some tips as to how you take a flying shot without cutting/clipping any wing.
E.g. I use center AF point almost all the time now (earlier I used to utilize all the AF points) in Al Servo mode, unless the bird is confortable placed. So if I use center point, the chances of clipping bird is very high but then its hard to use other AF points in flying shot.
Here in your shot the bird is nicely placed in the upper quarter and its a full frame.
I would really like to know your comments (unless its a trick of trade and you don't want to disclose it :-)).

[Ramon M. Casares]

Nagesh, I used all 45 AF points in AI SERVO mode, here you can see the Raw file. Because these little birds move a lot, I decided to use all the 45 AF Points as I usually use center AF Point for more predictible flights.
I don't think I did anything new, I just fired when the hummingbird was flying in the same place, that way I was able to recompose a little as the AI SERVO was able to keep focus on the bird, although in this case the head as you can see was preety much in the center anmd that helps :) there was also some crop to recompose. Hope this helps.

[Lorant Voros]

Hello Ramon,

With the repost it is one of the best hummer photos I have ever seen. Love the BG and the fact that the photo is so outstanding without using the sophisticated multi flash set up. Big congratulations.

[Jan Wegener]

the re post is a real killer. congrats :)

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Outstanding image Ramón. Amazingly beautiful bg and gorgeous feather colors. Expo and sharpness is killer.
I might compose it a bit differently leaving more room above.

Szimi

[Harshad Barve]

This is outstanding shot, Repost is too good
Thanks for sharing

Harshad

[Tony House]

Repost looks great Ramon, lovely detail,colour and B/G...

Excellent work.
Tony

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

killer bg and beautiful warm colors!!!

[Mike Tracy]

Easily one of the best hummer images I have seen IMO. I particularly like the translucent wings and how his little feet are curled up. I could go on and on.

I tip my hat to a extraordinary photo.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Easily one of the best hummer images I have seen IMO. I particularly like the translucent wings and how his little feet are curled up. I could go on and on.

I tip my hat to a extraordinary photo.

Mike, thank you so much for such nice words about this image, I apreciate them a lot! Many thanks!

Also thank you all for you thoughts, critiques and suggestions.

[Arthur Morris]

Well, I hate to burst Ramon's bubble and to disagree with most everyone above, but as a whole, this image does not work for me. I love the sharpness of the sharpness of the face, bill, belly, the undertail coverts, and even the feet, but the blurred near-wing looks totally unnatural to me; the underwing coverts do not look as if they are even connected to the primaries and secondaries. And the visible bit of the far wing confuses me further. I do love the colors and the BKGR, but as a complete image, I do not like it. Just my nickel's worth. But what do I know anyway?

[Ramon M. Casares]

Artie, what I like about these type of forums is that I get to see my images thru others eyes and that is priceless, all insights are welcome, with some I might agree with and some not, but I apreciate them all. :)

[Arthur Morris]

That is a great attitude bud!