Gorgeous Gorget

[Julie Brown]

Shot this Broad-tailed Hummingbird near the Fern Lake trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park over Memorial Day weekend. The males were zipping about and this one posed on the nicest perch for me long enough to get his portrait.

Canon 40D, 300mm f2.8L IS + 2X TC (960mm), ISO 800, 1/800sec @ f5.6, shutter priority, 1EV, pattern metering, Bogen monopod w/RRS monopod head

PP: LR 2.6
about 50% crop
set black and white points
slight S curve tweak
enhanced clarity and vibrance
dust spot removal
adjustment brush to tone down highlights on branch and breast
Nik software: Dfine 2.0 for NR, Sharpener Pro Output

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Excellent BG, HA and eye contact. About the only thing I would do is take some from the bottom. IMO
Congrats

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent BG, HA and eye contact. About the only thing I would do is take some from the bottom. IMO
Congrats

+ 1 here , excellent
TFS

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Julie

I'm just having trouble with the perch? If you didn't have the oof on the bg would be just fine !! Would go a little darker overall and lighten the underside of the wing !! Elegant composition and crop and I find these type are the most difficult to get !!!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Julie, nice capture of an elusive subject. I would also take some off the bottom. Wished for a cleaner backround without the rear foliage...

[Dave Leroy]

I really like the pose of the hummer.

If you do removals, you could try removing the bulk of the oof bg and the balance remaining that is mixed in with perch blends in nicely.

Very nice job on the exposure.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Like how he looks like he is on top of a pyramid. Just the OOF branch, but I think it is nearly impossible to get a clean shot unless you have a set-up Julie.

[Julie Brown]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Overall, I am pleased with this image, although I wish the BG did not have the OOF bush behind it. As I recall I was concentrating on capturing the throat color with a good head angle. In hindsight, I should have shifted position to get a cleaner perch, but I didn't want to scare the bird off. For the repost I cropped to eliminate as much of the distracting OOF elements as possible, darkened the image a bit and brought up the shadow under the wing. Too much? I'm not sure if this is any better!:confused: