Tuesday, June 27th, 2006...6:06 am
Humming Right Along
We spent some time with my family this weekend and one of the many lovely things we enjoyed was sitting quietly and watching hummingbirds. At first there were only three very determined little guys who braved a fierce rainstorm to zoom into the feeder for a nibble. As soon as the rain stopped and the clouds cleared there were many more; we counted nine hovering around the feeders at one point with more flying about in the trees.
Hummingbirds are tricky animals to get pictures of! They never stop moving. They take a sip, hover, sip, hover, zoom away. Their wings beat so fast it’s hard for a human eye to see, and you’ve got to have a pretty fast shutter speed to get it on camera. After much patience where I inched ever closer to the feeder, I managed to get a couple shots I’m pretty happy with. The kids were amazed at how loudly their wings hummed.
7 Comments
June 27th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Great shots! We love the hummingbirds too!
June 27th, 2006 at 11:50 am
Wow! I am impressed! Those are awesome shots. What kind of camera do you use?
Kyle and I were just reading about hummingbirds, he was fascinated with Bee Hummingbirds, the smallest bird. I think I need to try to find a hummingbird feeder…I wonder if there are hummingbirds at the beach?
We actually have been doing a bit of bird watching off the deck…I have been meaning to post pictures…
~Steph
June 27th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Thanks Steph & Lara!
I use a Sony W5. It has 5mp and a 3x optical zoom, which is pretty standard, but it builds on this with an incredible list of features, such as video with sound, 2″ LCD screen, adjustable shutter speed, audio/video out, burst mode, etc. I found this camera by searching for the highest user-rated cameras in my price range (under $200). It’s priced really well compared to all the extras it has!
As my photography skills improve this camera can grow with me because it has lots of manual settings to play with and I can get attachments for it, like zoom & telephoto lenses, a slave flash, and an underwater kit.
Does it sound like I’m really, really happy with my camera, lol?
June 27th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Great pictures!!! I love those hummers….I have Rufous and Anna’s - and once I actually had a Costa hummingbird (I didn’t think it was possible in Oregon - but then someone North of me posted a picture of a Costa - so I knew it was true!) I don’t even try to get a pic, because they are too fast.
June 27th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
OH - You should check out this blog - she’s got pictures of her grandchildren with hummers landing on their hands!!! Amazing pics…
http://thedustwillwait.blogspot.com/2006/06/hummer-time.html
June 27th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Wow, that is pretty neat! As long as I held still and took my time, I could inch closer and closer. It never occurred to me to place my hands on the feeder. Now I’ll have to try that next time, although it will require relinquishing the camera to DH and I’m just not sure how I feel about that, lol.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:31 am
Those are some of the best humming bird shots I have seen. Where we used to live we had humming bird feeders and got lots of them, but I never successfully took a picture of one.