A rude awakening in the mountains yesterday.
Yesterday morning I was chomping at the bit to go shooting. Mostly because of bad weather and poor light for bird photography I hadn’t been in the field for two full weeks but the forecast for yesterday was for bright blue skies, which the weather satellite and radar confirmed when I got up, so I headed to the nearby mountains to scratch my bird photography itch.
But 20 minutes later as I approached Parley’s Summit my hopes were dashed by incredibly foreboding skies looming right in front of me. A huge bank of dark, roiling clouds was hiding in the mountains right over my intended destination. It looked like it could snow for a week but by that time it was too late to turn back so I continued to my destination and took what fate had handed me.
1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
It was mostly a hummingbird kind of morning. I caught this male Black-chinned Hummingbird in a stretching pose that I thought was interesting, despite his bright, looping perch that I find a bit distracting. In such poor light I was surprised when the…
1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
metallic violet iridescence of his gorget lit up a little when he turned his head my way slightly. The iridescence of the gorget of this species is mostly on the lower throat of the males.
Once I saw some of those colors through my viewfinder my goal became to capture them in even more of their glory but the only times that happened was when…
1/800, f/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
he had his gorget facing me straight on, so I could never see his eyes.
1/800, f/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
His colors flashed even when he was preening but I still couldn’t see his eyes or get a catch light.
I ended up taking over 2700 photos, mostly of hummingbirds perched and in flight, but in that poor light most of them are garbage. Or they soon will be, after an agonizingly long and painful culling session in my near future. I’m just thankful I was shooting with my mechanical shutter at “only” 12 frames per second.
If I’d been using my electronic shutter at 20 frames per second I’d be tempted to delete every last image in one swell foop.
Ron
Fabulous set of shooting , I couldn’t get so lucky..
These are beautiful, looks like the camera did well in low light.
Ron,
There must be a setting on your camera that lets you set a limit on the fps in the mirrorless mode. On the Olymppus, I usually have mine set at 6 or 8 fps except in the mode when I half press the shutter and it begins buffering the data until I fully press the shutter release. It then saves x number of pre-shutter release shots along with the subsequent ones. This is great for capturing the take-off behavior that occurs during my reaction time. The point is, using the mirrorless mode is most likely not linked to a particular fps. I don’t know Canon cameras, but I would bet you can find a setting that lets you adjust it.
Thanks for the tip, David. I’ll look into it.
Beautiful shots, even in the low light, and kudos for catching the iridescence of that gorget. There’s something very intimate about the preening shots. I feel like I’m being let in on a very rare treat, indeed.
Please be gentle with your itchy trigger finger as you cull. 😉
Thanks, Marty. I’ll be as gentle as I can.
Colour me amazed. And delighted. While shuddering at the thought of going through all those images….
Thanks, EC. We’ll shudder together.
I love that you mentioned the culling process. A lot of people do not realize the amount of images we scrutinize and delete just to find a few bits of treasure in a heap of junk. I find going over images an incredible daunting task, as I do an initial cut, then a secondary cut, then the remaining images get blown up to 100% in photoshop, and looked at from every angle as to sharpness across the entire image, lighting, catchlight, and that “something special” that separates one image from the others. There have been times, when I have been tempted to delete the entire lot myself, just because the task seemed overwhelming. If I do buy the R5, I will NOT do the 20 fps. I think 12 is enough. I am glad to know that I am not alone out there. I ALWAYS appreciate your candidness in this blog – Thank YOU!
Sounds similar to what I do, Rene. Since I bought the R5, looking at my images that have potential at 100% has become even more essential because of the fact that it’s full frame and 45 MP each image.
Seven color descriptions and counting:
Blue-violet
Violet
Purple
Blue
Metallic violet
Iridescent blue
Violet iridescent
And I believe they’re all correct. I’ll throw in royal platinum violet in honor of the queen’s 70th jubilee.
I turned the first photo upside down. Black-capped Hummingbird.
Lyle, Cornell describes it as ” metallic violet iridescence on lower throat”. I just went with that so if anyone contradicted me I could blame it on Cornell… 🙂
I always learn something new from you, Ron! Gorget is a new term for me and his is stunning. I would never have guessed those black feathers under his chin in the first photo would become the dazzling iridescent blue in the subsequent photos! Did it ever snow on you or were the dark clouds a tease?
Nope, it didn’t snow Melanie. Didn’t rain either. Sure looked like it was going to!
I am so glad you did not allow the foreboding clouds to deter you from your mission. The hummer was totally worth the journey although the number of photos you intend to go through is a daunting prospect. I don’t envy you!
Good you hung in there in spite of the unfavorable weather. Very nice shots all. Love when the light catches that iridescence especially when it is purple like these. I hate coming back to cull through 2 or 3 hundred photos. I don’t think I could handle to volumes you get at those speeds.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle this one, Everett – especially after taking so many more photos this morning.
“Ultra”-violet —how gorgeous ! I’ve seen many Black-Throated hummers,
but NEVER that blue-violet hue–just flashes of red-violet, now and then;
what a visual treat– well worth your braving the roiling ( love that rarely used
adjective ) dark cloud for this color capture –thanks !
Kris, sometimes when I’m writing my posts, words like that just come to me out of the blue – even though it’s been years since I’ve used them in everyday speech. I’m not sure how that works…
Radar isn’t all it’s cracked up to be at times tho, often, it gives us a better clue than the forecast/talkers on the weather here…… 😉 The Gorget is gorgeous even if eyes are lacking. 🙂 I would never get through that many photos for any kind of close scrutiny. Have one sister in England that probably pushes that now and then. 😉
Grey Catbirds are back and a couple of Gold Finches. The “guard Grackle” continues to harass the Magpies coming and going from their nest as well as anything else that comes closer than they think they should. Sounds like some Magpies have hatched and are hungry across the creek.
Judy, I still haven’t seen a catbird this year, even at one of their old reliable places. I’ve heard a few though.
Tech is such a double edge sword. In this digital age you can shoot at these incredible rates and create for oneself an unmanageable amount of data (with accompanying storage, categorizing, and long-term retention challenges). I come nowhere near what you shoot and process, and seeing numbers like this gives me a case of sympathetic anxiousness. But then, I think I have a data/records hording problem.
All that aside, capturing that violet iridescent color is very cool.
Double edge sword indeed, Michael. I hope I never got in the habit of using that electronic viewfinder. I might be tempted by it on occasion if Canon ever comes up with some kind of fake shutter sound to go along with it. As it stands it’s silent so you don’t know how many photos you’ve taken.
It’s going to take you a year to go through all those photos. We have up to 3 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at our feeders now, but every one is a female. Back in Florida the feeders usually had the sun behind them and I rarely caught the iridescent reflections. Now the light is perfect and I guess I just need patience as Connecticut is within their breeding range. Just hope the bears do not get to the feeder first.
“It’s going to take you a year to go through all those photos”
I’m a slow learner, Kenneth. I took another 1700+ photos this morning. At least this time I had good light and some pretty darn good birds too.
Nice purple gorget and nice Spoonerism! 😁
Not getting a catch light must have been a blushing crow (not mine. From the Britannica)
That’s a good one, Frances. From Britannica or not.
I’m glad you enjoyed both, Cathy. Couldn’t help myself.
2700 photos! I can’t imagine the pain of editing that, even though I understand the temptation to do it.
The blue shades of the gorget are amazing, even in poor light.
Nancy, at this point I can’t imagine it either. I got caught up in the excitement of the moment(s) I guess…