Almost There

[drash]

Female Ruby Throated Hummingbird manuevering for her place at the feeder. It is interesting how these birds accomplish their acrobatic manuevers. Her tail feathers are spread very wide in this shot for stability. This was taken in May 2006 during a Spring shower and you can see rain droplets on her beak. We could surely use some rain right now.:(

Canon EOS 20D with Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 and Sigma 2.0x teleconverter, zoomed to 463mm, ISO 800, 1/160 sec., f/29.

[mrsisu]

The detail is great - can't believe you can see the water drops on her beak. You didn't put the water there with a spray bottle as she was flying did you? :D

[drash]

No, I did not spray water on the beak. Thanks for the nice comment.

I did leave out a very important element of the shot, and that was that I used four flash units at 1/32 power to stop the action.

[debrown]

Great shot and great detail. I was up on Grandfather Mountain this past weekend and shot a few frames of the Hummingbirds around the feeders on the deck off from dining room. Here is one of them. Maybe we can make this the "Thread of Hummers".

[drash]

Thanks for the nice comment on my image "Almost There", Don.

Your image of the female hummingbird at the feeder at Grandfather Mountain is also very good.

[rpk717]

Don,

I like the way the wings, tail, and beak almost makes a five point star. Very cool.

My preference would be not to include the feeder when possible.