Hummingbird
May, 2017Views
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Contest Finalist in Birds On Branches Photo Contest
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken at Circuito Grupo Sur Parque Viva - a Racing Track in Costa Rica at May, 2017. I was shooting a motorcycle racing at the Costarican Super Bike championship and when I turned my head to my left I saw that beautiful bird. Actually, there were two of them, but I was only able to caught one of them in camera.Time
I am very proud about this shot. I tried many times to get a hummingbird frozen in my sensor, but had never got that before. It was around noon and I was shooting a motorcycle race. I remember I had my camera set for panning since I was shooting high speed super bikes right in the track, and when I just saw that couple of little beautiful birds flying and standing still on some small branches I got myself in despair: Am I going to have time to reset my camera before they go away? I ran faster than those super bikes on the track and I got the camera ready with a good setting and just shoot.Lighting
Nothing special. As I said, it was around 12pm in a really sunny day so there was enough light for a fast shutter speed shot.Equipment
For this picture, I used my Nikon D810 with a Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens. The camera was hand-held since I was panning the super bikes race, but this particular shot was taken at f/6.3, 1/4000s sec, ISO-40 at 600mm focal length.Inspiration
Well, as I was shooting a motorcycle race, and suddenly I saw a couple of hummingbirds right close to me I can just say the inspiration came as fast as both motorcycles and the humming birds wings movement. I always wanted to to take a picture like this one, I tried it in different opportunities and had never got that before. So, when I saw them standing over some branches close to me I really didn't hesitate in changing my camera settings for getting them on my frame. I just got one of them, but I love the result :)Editing
Not so much. I just used Lightroom for light adjustments. Also. for trying to push up the bird colors a little bit for giving a little more color contrast between the bird and the background. Then, in the end I used Photoshop for removing some distracting branches from the foreground.In my camera bag
I never leave home without carrying my gear pack. The first thing into my bag is my all-in-one Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5:5.6. With that lens, at 28mm I can take wide angle landscapes and scenes, and the lens length range allows me also to take nice portrait at 85mm as well zooming birds and other kind on nature stuff at 200mm or 300mm. Then comes both my Nikon FX D810 and D610 bodies. If I am about to shoot sports or wildlife I included my Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 Contemporary Version for getting even closer to the action. And to complete the pack, I also include my Tamrom 180mm f/3.5 1:1 lens for macro photography, my Rokinon 14mm f2.8 and my Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 fish eye lenses for ultra wide angle shots. Also, I never forget the two spare batteries, tripod, additional memory cards, a wireless remote shooter and the Yongnuo YN685 speedlight flash.Feedback
Well, as I mentioned before I had tried this kind of shot before and had never been successfully. Ironically, I got it when I was ready to shot a completely different kind of subject and also, when I had my camera set not for wild life shots but with a very low shutter speed since I was intended to panning high speed subjects. I'm pretty sure I was only able to get this shot because I know very well my camera layout and setting buttons. Knowing the camera made me get the settings changed pretty quick and allowed me to have enough time to make those changes and shoot right in time before the bird to fly away. So, my advise is not about this shot specifically, but for everyone to take some time to learn and understand camera settings, camera menus and camera buttons. That for sure will help you in some situation where changing the camera settings needs to be faster than the shot itself.
