The other day, I heard a hawk out back. I put the bird kit together (D7000, 70-200 f/2.8, TC1.7e-II teleconverter) and tried to find him. On the way, a hummingbird showed up and posed for me, and I forgot all about the hawk. Today, I stalked the Indian Tobacco plant to get more hummingbird photos. He never showed, but the hawk did. Obviously, they’re toying with me, but I don’t mind. I get an awful lot of joy out of this.
Naturally, I’d like to shoot this at a lower ISO for less noise and broader dynamic range, but I take the light as it comes, and there wasn’t much in this shady area of the yard.
The hummingbird spent a lot of time in the Indian Tobacco plant, giving me lots of opportunities to experiment.
…And experiment I did!
There were others, too. Acorn woodpeckers are like ants around here. Some people thought this was a shot of a hawk about to grab the woodpecker, but no, it’s just another woodpecker.
This fellow didn’t get as close as I would like, but it was a real pleasure to watch him, even at a distance. I don’t think he enjoyed watching me as much as I enjoyed watching him.
I might try cropping this differently, but I like the fact that you have to find him, and when you do, his pensive attitude generates some emotion.
Another emotion. That’s all, folks. At least until tomorrow!
larry wants to know what kind of bird in the picture “I didn’t know they could…”
It’s an Anna’s Hummingbird – same as in all the nectar-gathering images.
Is the exposure a setting that’s built in to the Nikon, so you can get the bird’s exposure right against the sky. Yobroinlo
I use spot metering in these cases, but the hummingbird is smaller than the spot!