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Sitting prettyAnna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna), Nanaimo, British Columbia, April 14, 2011, at 10:25 a.m., by Keith MacDonald
Published: June 24, 2011  Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna), by Keith MacDonald
As he set up his gear, he was surprised by a female Anna’s Hummingbird, which perched on a thin branch just in front of his camera, holding fuzz from bulrushes that grow in the nearby marsh. The bird promptly took flight but didn’t go far. She landed not more than 10 feet away in what MacDonald realized was a half-built nest situated at eye level in a small bush.
MacDonald immediately changed his focus and watched for over an hour as the bird finished her nest, making sure she remained undisturbed by his presence as he did so. After her task was complete, he used his 500mm lens to get close-up photos of her upon her handiwork. |
Equipment used
Camera: Sony Alpha DSLR-A700
Lens: Sigma 500mm f/4.5
Tripod: Slik Pro 700DX, Benro Gimbal Head
Settings: ISO 400, 1/200, f/5.6, aperture priority, spot metering
Light: Natural, no flash
Format: RAW converted to JPG
Adjustments: File conversion with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, minor crop and slight sharpening with Adobe Photoshop CS5, and noise reduction with Topaz DeNoise 5 |
Meet the photographer
AN EYE FOR HUMMINGBIRDS: Keith MacDonald is a retired firefighter, a new BirdWatching subscriber, and an avid photographer. He has only one year’s experience taking pictures, but the hobby is already an obsession. He is constantly in pursuit of new species to photograph, he says. He has lived in Nanaimo, British Columbia, his entire life. |
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