AKA hummingbirds at 1/90 second OR even 1/60 second!

I thought I would go back through some of my images in 2007, since I had some down time. Every now and then I find a little gem that I overlooked and/or dismissed. I came across 20 some odd hummingbird images that I took just after a heavy downpour late in the evening. The skies cleared approx. 40 minutes later, but only 5-10 minutes of decent light remained before sunset. With a tall task ahead of me, I quickly did a meter on the camera in AV mode. Then I changed the camera settings to M mode, and dialed in my changes for what I wanted.

So why even attempt this? Simply to prove that I could succeed. Of course, understanding light and solid technique is VERY important if you wish to come away with some success in this situation. The greater majority of people would have walked away from this situation when trying to use ISO 200 on a fast moving subject. Obviously the cameras that can shoot very high ISO's with minimal noise would have been the best choice. Faced with those conditions, most would forgo trying to shoot in this situation if higher ISO's were not an option.

What shocked me: in almost all instances, I broke one or even many rules taking these images. The most obvious is the shutter speeds that is almost universally recommended by experienced hummingbird photographers. Normally you would see 1/750 or 1/1000 sec. shutter speed as a minimum. Several people on a forum were in utter disbelief when I informed them (or they checked the EXIF) that I regularly photographed these aerial acrobats at 1/500 sec. I do this shutter speed in M mode for a specific reason: so that I control the image, not the camera.

Rules broken:

1. Minimum shutter speeds recommended for a fast moving subject (in order to have a crisp image, not blurred artistic), as was the focal length used (300mm). It easily exceeded the reciprocal shutter speed.
2. EV value at -2 (ie. not exposing to the right)
3. Kept ISO low during very low light conditions.

Images - taken with the K10D + FA* 300/2.8, cropping around 50% of image (1/90 sec.):


Link to EXIF: SmugMug Photo Sharing. Your photos look better here.

Taken at 1/60 sec.:

Link to EXIF: SmugMug Photo Sharing. Your photos look better here.


These are obviously not magazine material images, so please bear that in mind. Given the shutter speeds involved, I am very pleased with the clarity. I came away with nearly a 50% success rate - several were slightly soft (OOF) due to the aperture used and corresponding DOF. It can be done!!

Regards,
Marc

[Marc Langille]

Wow! Your images are amazing! I both of them!

Cindy, thank you!

Two gorgeous images Mark, rules are there to be broken or the exception enforces the rule or something like it. Thanks for posting them.

Thank you Heinrich! It's true that sometimes you just have to "abandon the torpedoes" and go for broke..

I hope all is well on your side of the border?

Regards,
Marc