Just started being more active here after departing Twitter in an anti-Trump/Musk rage tonight.
Here's a sample of another side of me...
@dnarich Perfect capture! Love these little birds...have some photos I've taken of them...none this great though.
@Embers Thank you!
Having great equipment and the right settings helps a lot.
1/3200 sec, f/5.6 is my go-to aperture for these little guys, and whatever the ISO needs to be to let in enough light (depending on the light conditions). I also have a great setup for them with lots of "hummer flowers" in my front yard and a backdrop of evergreens about 60 feet away.
@dnarich I have some decent gear..not super high end. Everything I shoot now days requires a tri-pod though as my hands are too shaky to get clear shots especially with some of the heavier telephoto lenses. Will try to find some of my hummer pics to upload. Have one of a hummingbird sitting on a regular bird feeder looking confused 😄
@Embers Even with a "consumer" lens, you can get some really nice shots using focal lengths of between about 200mm - 400mm. The key is acquiring focus fast enough, and that can be hard, especially with lower cost cameras. If you can set up just the center focus point, that will help, and try to first focus on something about the same distance away as the hummers before starting. I literally sit in a chair with my cup of coffee and camera and wait for the hummers to show.
@Embers Also, set the camera to shoot multiple shots in a row. I'll shoot several and then pick the one with the best wing position!
@Embers That should work well as long as you have pretty good light for a fast shutter speed, and set that center focus point to nail focus on the birds eye.
Good luck!