Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

I set up a little blind in my backyard hoping I’d be able to make a decent image of the Hummingbirds that come to the feeder. I used the cover of the sandbox as a blind by bracing it against my Camilla bush,  then I set up my tripod, camera, and comfy seat behind it then waited.

  It took about a half hour and a few over my head buzzes before the Hummingbirds felt safe enough to stop at the Feeder for a drink.
  After lunch I moved the sandbox cover to the edge of the lawn for a different angle bracing the cover on the Patio Cover’s post. I heard the Hummingbird chitting away in the Flowering Plum beside me so turned to see if I could see him and there he was sitting on a branch watching the feeder.
There’s been another male coming by and this one chases him off whenever he comes around. He sat there for long enough for me to photograph him for several minutes.
He was in the shade of many branches overhead so, while the image is sharp there is more noise than I’d like. I tried Auto ISO during this shoot to see how it would do, mainly to see if I would be able to concentrate more on shooting than having to change my ISO setting frequently to adjust for the light changes. I was also shooting a Butterfly that would occasionally come by to sip on the Lantana Bush which was in much better light than the feeder, and the tree. Auto ISO worked very well for me in these conditions.

 I used Adobe’s Camera Raw noise reduction a little bit to help remove some of the noise. 

Here’s another image of an Anna’s Hummingbird at the Feeder. He’s just about to take off after drinking some nectar.

That sandbox cover worked a treat as a blind.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 +  Nikon 14eII Teleconverter

More to come