Unfortunately this species never once came to a HB feeder. I had to resort to stalking it with the rig listed below, at a Lantana bush where it occasionally turned up to feed - always on the wing. Trying to locate and lock on to such a tiny fast flying subject was frustrating but great fun. I am sure they have a very well developed sense of humour - they never seem to visit the flower you are focused on while waiting for them to turn up. When they do turn up they flit from flower to flower, pausing only for a few secs on each, and when you do manage to gets some shots off you find 90% of the time they have their tail pointing towards the camera!
Camera - Canon 1D Mk111, 500mm f4 IS with TC2 on tripod with a Canon 580 11 f/gun and Better Beamer.
Exp. 1/1000 @ f10 ISO 1250 Fill-flash at minus 2.
This is a very beautiful hummingbird species, I like the action and pose, well worth the effort. I might desaturate the greens and yellows a few points, selectively sharpen the head and would be tempted to remove the orange spots in the BG.
beautiful photo of a beautiful bird. Loved the bokeh and how the bird's colors are echoed everywhere around it. You might want to look at the RGB histogram and bring some specific channel highlights down.
Wow, Melvin, got to love that red crest!!! I think it's beautiful if a bit over-saturated.
I kind of like the orange donuts, matter of taste.
Congratulations!
Love this new species for me. It would be fine to see the image with and without the orange circles on BG just to see how can it help the composition. Please keep them coming.
Outstanding species! Just gorgeous!
I love the light and colors altohugh it looks oversaturated. IMO there's motion blur in the head and a lower angle would've improved this one.
Still, after what you've told us about the conditions and dificulty of getting a nice image of this little guy I think it looks good!
My advice would be to temporarily cover some flowers so he has less options to feed from and you can have more % that He'll stop by your flower. :)
Congratulations!
Fantastic capture Melvin, well worth the trouble taken to capture.
I like the iridescence and colour.
Just for information/interest the Lantana is declared as an invader weed in South Africa.
Thank you all very much for your comments and advice. The 'orange donuts' - great one Fabs, I had never thought of them like that! - are just out of focus other lantana flowers. I, personally, like them as they were part of the natural habitat the bird was feeding in. Ramon, I was working from the end of a balcony at the Asa Wright Nature Centre, which gets very crowded at times with school parties etc. - but education is what it is there for. I was shooting down onto the top of a large Lantana bush which was the only place where this bird was feeding. The top of the bush was about 12 feet from the ground, so there is no way I could have covered some of the numerous flowers, even if I had been allowed to. But thank you, that is a useful tip to keep in mind for the future. The ability to get instant feedback and helpful advice is what makes this forum great! I will certainly redo the Raw file bearing in mind the comments. The image is not as sharp as it should be, the shutter speed was just not fast enough, I have already selectively sharpened the head slightly but did not want to overdo it. Thanks again.
Melvin
Another gorgeous image Melvin! The coquettes never come to feeders in my experience and they are extremely difficult to photograph well. They are very tiny and extremely quick. I quite agree that they have a well developed sense of humor and must have a good laugh at our attempts to outguess which flower they will visit next. I love the "orange donuts" in the background as they echo the bird's colors. I think it only needs a tiny bit less saturation. I'd be proud to have this one as my own.
Melvin, Great discussion above. I like the orange donuts but the one that merges a bit with the bird's head is a bit distracting. If you had known that it would feed at this flower and had moved your tripod six inches to the right, ...... Anyway, a great image as noted by all.
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Male Tufted Coquette feeding in flight
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