Ruby-throated Hummingbird

[Jason G. Harrison]

This image was taken during a few days where I set up a multi flash set up on a feeder in the back yard. I had used homemade backgrounds but on this day I propped up a barrell full of petunias so it would be a natural background. I used 5 SB-900's on various sized stands. The main lights on the subject were set on Manual at 1/16th power, the background light, I set on manual at 1/32th, as more and more ambient light was creeping in and I did not think i needed more flash on it. Still, I had dark spots in the areas lacking flowers, etc...

Caught this heavy female coming in for a snack. I am sure she was loading up for her trip south. Image was captured using a D300, 200-400VR, shooting manual exposure, f/11, ISO 200, 1/250th SS, @ 400mm, minimum focus distance, in a hide. Used a SU-800 as my master flash control. I cloned out the extra catchlights in the eye.



Hope you enjoyed, C&C welcome.

Jason

[arash_hazeghi]

Very beautiful, love the wing position, sharpness and detail here, BG is bit too busy and distracts from the hummer, you can clean it up with Gaussian blur if your ethics allow.

[Harshad Barve]

Lovely wing pose and nice details , Blurring BG will add to fine shot
TFS

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Lovely hummer. I would suggest you to use an artificial BG if that is not against your ethics. This natural BG is very distracting.

[Danny J Brown]

Beautiful shot Jason. Razor sharp and beautiful colors handled well. I like the bokeh as it is because I can envision the flowers back there.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Pin sharp with great pose, colours & detail. Ditto BG a bit distracting. Still well done!

[Billy Steenkamp]

Like how you technically captured the bird..colours on it and the detail true to the species..well done on an appealing image.

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

Very well done. Detail and color are fantastic.