Saturday, September 13, 2014

Phantom!

Lenore and I had a wonderful breakfast this morning together in the small town of Ukiah to the south of us. Afterwards we went to the farmers market. Then we donated some of our children's old bikes to a worthy cause. Next it was off to the nursery where I scoured the selection of flowers looking for some new flowers to photograph hummingbirds with. I really wanted a nice looking fuschia. But they didn't have any as they were out of them. I trooped up and down the aisles looking and looking and nothing caught my fancy until I found some petunias surprisingly called "Phantoms". At first I thought they would be too dark until I found a variegated pot of them in the middle of the flat. When I got home I immediately took them into the backyard and did some hummingbird photography with the one remaining Anna's Hummingbird. I loved the result! If you are interested in learning how to do hummingbird photography like this please check out Chapter six of my new book, "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography" It explains in detail the equipment needed and how to set it up your backyard. The book is available on Amazon and other fine book sellers as well as on Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Backyard-Photography-Chris-Hansen/dp/1937538559 Image created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens. Camera settings used Manual mode, ISO 200, F16.0 at 1/160th of a sec. (4) Canon 540 EZ flashes were used set to 1/16th power. A Manfotto 055XB tripod and a Bogen 3055 ballhead was used to support the camera.

4 comments:

  1. I am always so amazed at your photographs !

    ReplyDelete
  2. So nice of you to write that Lia Storm. Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is beautiful! Hummingbirds are so difficult to photograph with their incessant fluttering of wings, I always end up with its wings blurred :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you so very much for your comment, Sweta. You can prevent blurred wings by using multiple manual flashes set to 1/16th power. The camera typically is set on an F stop in the range of F13.0 to F18.0 and the shutter speed set to the sync speed of the camera or below.

    ReplyDelete