A Little Closer
Nov, 2014Views
776
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Awards
2020 Choice Award
Peer Award
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Superb Composition
All Star
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken outside the front of my house in the front lawn back on the Central Coast of California. Though this was this bird's territory.Time
It was a Monday evening at 5:20 P.M. on September 1, 2014, with the sun still high in the sky. You could hear other hummingbirds in the distance chirping and hovering around the bushes from one flower to the next looking for the sweet nectar.Lighting
This was all natural lighting just as you would expect from any live outdoor nature shot. The angle of the shot relied heavily on the bird as one minor adjustment on my part would have ruined the entire sequence of shots.Equipment
Canon Rebel T3i with the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II lens, surprisingly zoomed at 250, and just a Rocket Fish UV filter. Nothing more was used other than extremely steady hands and a tight posture.Inspiration
My first capture of a hummingbird inspired me to take this photo. Usually the first shot of anything is never good enough. Sometimes it can be bad lighting, a schotty angle, a blurry shot, not being close enough or just plain all out of focus. Or perhaps it could be all of the above. I couldn't tell you what hummingbird shot this is. I can certainly tell you it wasn't the last.Editing
If you count Lightroom adjustments as post-processing sure, I guess. There is no Photoshop post-processing, merges or any of the likes. I like to keep the things I capture to be as natural as nature put out.In my camera bag
Canon Rebel T3i with EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II lens is really all I ever pull out anymore and it's basically ready for any bird I want to capture. I have an assortment of lenses in my bag that hardly get used, sadly. Anything else is with my Galaxy S8+ "smartphone" anymore.Feedback
Just keep taking pictures, honestly. It sounds cliche and everybody is going to tell you that because lets be honest, we know it's true. The whole point in being skillful in a certain field of photography is to capture your subject, study the picture, learn from your mistakes, recapture your subject, rinse and repeat. And this will go on for as long as it takes you until you get that feeling...
