Hummer! - The Hull Truth

pugnacious3333 · 09-27-2009, 04:13 PM

Dantilu · 09-27-2009, 06:30 PM

!!!!!!! Amazing photos !!!!!!!!!

tomarsyd · 09-27-2009, 06:42 PM

Oh man, those are great!

I have a bottlebrush plant in my front yard and the hummingbirds are always on it. I haven't been able to catch one on camera.

Awesome shots and way to be persistant!

CMEBoston · 09-27-2009, 06:50 PM

Very cool!!

pugnacious3333 · 09-27-2009, 06:58 PM

Thanks guys. These shots weren't as diffucult as you might think. It is more of a logistical challenge. These were shot at 1/250th of a second. I still can't believe that isn't fast enough to stop the wing beats.

tomarsyd · 09-27-2009, 07:23 PM

After I posted, I wondered what your shutter speed was. You're right, I can't believe it didn't stop them either. Unbelievable how fast they are.

The hummingbirds quite often land on my bottlebrush which I've heard is sorta rare. I don't know for a fact though.

salt_shaker · 09-28-2009, 07:52 AM

wow!

pugnacious3333 · 09-30-2009, 04:55 PM

Managed to get a nice "portrait". I thought this shot was pretty cool in that you can start to see the red developing on its "ruby throat". A funny story to go along with this pic. A few days ago I came home from work and notice one of these little guys caught in a spider web. I managed to get it down and remove as much of the web as I could. It sat there in my hand for about 5 minutes, kinda dazed, stressed I suppose from trying to thrash itself out of the web. Eventually it just took off. I can't say for sure that this is the bird, but since then, i've had no problems getting close to it and it doesn't seem to be as afraid of me, almost as though i'm being thanked. Mother nature is cool!

Afishinado · 10-01-2009, 06:13 AM

Great photos Pug.... Thanks for posting

NJFISH · 10-01-2009, 10:52 AM

Excellent shots! I saw my first ever HB in my yard this summer...then I bought a HB feeder and it never came back!

PROFINITY · 10-01-2009, 11:08 AM

GREAT photos and story.

navyaircrew · 10-01-2009, 11:13 AM

pug, i like that story.. pretty cool man... now , if the bird starts to do "Hello my darline, hello my rag time doll!" , i really think you should video that one! hahaha

Ray Zor · 10-02-2009, 06:09 PM

Awesome work Jason! Were these taken with the 400mm Tokina?
Also, what flash do you typically use?
I have the canon xsi and xt body but do not have a 400 or 10-20.....YET!

Thanks

pugnacious3333 · 10-02-2009, 07:32 PM

These were taken with the 400. I bought it used at keh.com. The autofocus is slow so I rarely use it. It has turned out to be perfect for birds, because it is very sharp at a close distance. The sharpness isn't that great far out.

I rarely use flash. Occasionally i'll use the pop up on my camera, but not much. Pro hummingbird photographers use flash setups to stop the wings (that is the ONLY way to freeze the wingbeats), but i'm not sure i'll ever get into that. I kinda like the blur, as long as the body is sharp.

My next lens will be the Sigma 18-50 f2.8 EX for Digital.