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Hummingbird Babies Ready to leave the Nest

Hummingbird Babies Ready to leave the Nest

We found a hummingbird nest near our house and were able to watch it from the tiny eggs that were laid to this stage where the babies were one day away from fle...
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We found a hummingbird nest near our house and were able to watch it from the tiny eggs that were laid to this stage where the babies were one day away from fledging from the nest. What a privilege!
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NIKON D800

settings

Aperture f/4.5 ISO 80 Shutter 1/2 Focal Length 850/10

location

Quathiaski Cove, , CA

upload_date

Nov, 2019

Views

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Awards

2020 Choice Award

Peer Award

Absolute Masterpiece

Emotions

Impressed

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo July 1st, 2019. My husband and I had been following this hummingbird nest that we found amongst the blackberry brambles in our backyard. I found the nest before the eggs were laid so watched carefully almost every day. At first we saw the two eggs and then the mother sitting on the nest. Finally we caught a sight of the tiny babies in the nest. About a week later my husband was able to photograph the mother feeding her young but after that we observed the nest only when we saw the mom was away feeding herself. So we watched the entire process from birth to the babies leaving the nest. They flew off within an hour of my taking this photo. One thing that was fun was to watch the tiny nest expand as the babies grew. At one point I thought they might fall out. Several days after the babies were gone we cut the branches holding the nest and kept this as souvenir. It is still very small even after housing two full grown chicks!

Time

It was at 1:25pm on July 1st 2019. The lighting was a challenge the entire time we watched the nest as morning sunlight would drench the surrounding foliage and interrupt our ability to get a good photo due to wash out. In the afternoon it was in deep shade. The nest was tucked under some very large leaves from the blackberries so it meant we needed to carefully pull the leaves away and try not to disturb the chicks in order to take a photo. They knew we were there as I have photos of them looking straight at me. We felt so blessed to watch this nest and the babies from egg stage to fully grown. Once they were gone we truly felt "empty nest syndrome" for a couple of days.

Lighting

As I said above, the lighting in the morning was a challenge due to the sun washing out the leaves and by afternoon the nest was in deep shade. But we persevered and tried different ISO, shutter speed and apertures to get the good photos that we did. It was interesting to see the different colours between by husband's Sony video cam that he used to take still photos and my Nikon D800. My camera was more true to the natural colours.

Equipment

I used my Nikon D800 with my Nikkor 85mm 1:1.35 G lens. Camera on a tripod was an absolute must.

Inspiration

This was the first hummingbird nest that I have ever found and the fact that it was so accessible was an incredible gift. We feed hummingbirds all year long so the opportunity to photograph the nest was something we were thrilled to do. Our neighbours even got involved and we showed them the next several times so it felt like a community event. I was so excited about this photo that I submitted it to the Quadra Island phone book cover competition and I won. So the 2020 Quadra Island phone book has this photo on it's cover and a copy of the phone book goes to every residential address on the island. That was very thrilling and I had several phone calls and emails congratulating me. I even got the gift of a beautiful book on hummingbirds from a lady who was so thrilled to see this photo on the phone book cover.

Editing

With using the Nikkor 85 1:35 I get a shadowing around the edges which I needed to crop out. I love this lens though as it allows me to get in closer to a subject that I can physically get to my subject. I use it a lot for my close-up and macro photos.

In my camera bag

I pack my Nikon D800 plus my 85 1:1.4 prime lens along with the 85 1:1.35 lens if my plan is to do close up or macro work. They are wonderful and don't make my pack to heavy. I always carry my tripod as I have a bit of a shake, so stability is an issue unless I am shooting in lighting that can have an ISO above 500. If I am taking landscape or larger scale photos then I carry a 24-120 Nikon lens and on occasion a 28-300 Nikon lens. I carry a lovely artists brush that is the best for cleaning dust off my lenses. For any smudging I find the small cloths used for cleaning eye glasses is also the best for camera lenses.

Feedback

Patience is the biggest asset in taking this type of photo. Patience and the ability to step back and wait to observe this subject and the behaviour of the mother hummingbird. Sometimes I would set up my camera and get everything in focus then leave it for several hours, checking back periodically to see if there was a good image to take. Leaving the camera in place was easy as the nest was in our private back yard. We were very careful not to disturb the mother once she was settled back on the nest.

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Quadraladyphotos

Hummingbird Babies Ready to leave the Nest

We found a hummingbird nest near our house and were able to watch it from the tiny eggs that were laid to this stage where the babies were one day away from fle... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Quadraladyphotos

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We found a hummingbird nest near our house and were able to watch it from the tiny eggs that were laid to this stage where the babies were one day away from fle...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.