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Hummingbird Building a Nest



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I was experimenting with wildlife shots on a cloudy day. I didn't know this one had nest-building material until I saw the picture on my computer....
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I was experimenting with wildlife shots on a cloudy day. I didn't know this one had nest-building material until I saw the picture on my computer.
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Behind The Lens

Location

I shot this one at a wildlife preserve in Midland, TX. It's a small playa that had several trees grow up around it, and industrial areas beyond those trees. For a small wildlife area right in town in west Texas, it's surprising the variety of wildlife I've seen there.

Time

This was around noon, over my lunch hour during the work week. I was determined that I wanted to walk somewhere to get some exercise and occupy my time in lieu of eating. This small preserve has a mostly-paved trail just over a mile and a half long that goes around a small lake, so it worked for me with the limited time I had available.

Lighting

This was at around noon--my purpose was more walking during my lunch hour than it was to take pictures, but I try to always carry my camera when I walk. Fortunately, there was good tree cover, so I didn't have to deal with the harsh mid-day sunlight. I was holding the camera by hand, so I had the shutter speed set at 1/500 to eliminate shake or excessive motion blur. It was at f/6.3, which was as open as I could get at this zoom. The ISO was at 1600, and it was probably set on auto so I didn't have to think about it as I moved from sun to shade.

Equipment

I shot this with my Sony A99 and a Tamron 150-600 zoom lens. It was just a short walk during lunch, so no real planning or preparing. I just strapped my camera over my shoulder and walked.

Inspiration

When I walk around this wildlife preserve, I'm watching in all directions. I've seen many kinds of wildlife--waterfowl, wading birds, fish, songbirds, turtles, bobcats, lizards, etc. There are three areas where volunteers stock bird feeders, and this was one of them. I normally don't spend much time by the feeders, but this day I did. There were hummingbirds coming to the hummingbird feeder, so I leaned against a tree near there. Since I didn't have a tripod, I used the tree to steady myself. Then I focused on the feeder and waited. If memory serves, I still had it on auto focus, but had it zeroed in on the feeder so it would focus quickly to anything near that. Then I took lots and lots of pictures that I deleted because they weren't sharp. Fortunately I got one that was in focus.

Editing

My post-processing was minimal. I usually tweak the lights and darks a little and I probably bumped the vibrance up a small amount, mostly to get it to look like I remember seeing it when I was there. The biggest thing on this one was cropping the hummingbird feeder out of the right side of the picture. The feeder was close, so it had to be a tight crop. It wasn't until I got home that I saw the fiber in its beak and thought it must have been working on its nest.

In my camera bag

What I carry depends on where I'm going. I walk in nature a lot and often carry minimal equipment. Often it will be my camera with my 150-600 zoom, with a shoulder strap attached to the zoom lens. Then I carry a wide-angle lens in a pouch that hangs on one of my belt loops with a carabiner. When I need to swap lenses, I let the zoom hang from my shoulder strap and stick the wide-angle on. Then when I switch back, I just drop the wide-angle back in the pouch and put the zoom back on. When I'm driving and don't need to carry it all, my bag has three or four lenses, a few filters I rarely use, a cable remote, a wireless remote, lens wipes, extra batteries, and a tripod strapped to the outside. The bag is a backpack style, so I can strap it on and carry it with me if I need to.

Feedback

Find a place where the wildlife goes, like near feed or water, and park yourself there. Then be ready to take a lot of pictures to get a few good ones. I use a center focus so I won't accidentally focus on the background, but only because that seems to work best for me. There is certainly an element of luck involved, so persistence is important. Experiment with the way that works best for you to get sharp focus and good lighting. Practice and planning help with that, but taking lots of shots and deleting all those that don't work out is fair too.

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