Startled Anna's hummer

[dankearl]

I woke him up.
Very tight photo and is not cropped. I wish he had more room but I have never been this close (4 ft.) and he did not move.
I just kept walking up and he did not move and I got too close!

400mm
iso400
f5.6
SB-600 flash
1/250

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

He certainly does look startled!
Brilliant color on the head.

What body and lens? If a zoom, zooming out would have given you some framing options.
Your DOF is very thin because you were in so close

I would try to tone down the yellow area on the right upper frame edge, and probably the stick to his right side.

Cheers

Randy

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Agree with Randy's comments on DOF. The larger the subject in the frame the more DOF you need. Love the pink glare on the face. If you would have moved to the left you might have had a better background, with less distracting branches.

[Paul Guris]

Neat shot! You might reduce the blues a little. The head looks too purple for Anna's to me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

It is very tempting to want to move closer and closer on a tame subject...many times it works very well, but other times it takes a bit of discipline to realize the need to back up again...here I think getting so close did not help you artistically albeit you got fantastic details and I'm sure it was fun to approach. I do like the surprised pose but the BG and strong flash output are not ideal IMO.