Some Hummingbird Photos

In late June 2002 I decided to try my luck at photographing hummingbirds at our backyard feeder. I've spent several hours at it so far, and have managed to get these pictures. Maybe they're as good as I'll ever get, but I keep hoping I can get a little better. All were taken using an Olympus C-700UZ, which I've described in my first pictures page. These pictures, except the last two, were taken at my patio on July 6, 2002. I tried some different settings on August 17, but didn't have great success.

My initial batch was taken with the camera about six feet from the feeder and using 10x optical zoom. I was concerned that the birds wouldn't approach the feeder if I was too close to it. The maximum aperture in this mode is 3.5, and the fastest shutter speed I could use in that light was 1/320th second without resorting to a faster ISO setting. In my few attempts to use faster ISO settings in the past had yielded too much "noise". As with all compact digital cameras, there is a noticable delay from the time you press the button until the actual exposure. I set the focus and exposure to manual in an attempt to reduce the delay. Still, I missed several shots because by the time the picture was taken, the bird was long gone. They're incredibly fast little critters.

I've moved these photos to my hummingbirds gallery.

Here is a link to a series of photos someone else took of a hummingbird nest and infants and another For more info about hummingbirds, be sure to visit hummingbirds.net, and to see when Ruby-throated hummingbirds will arrive in your area, see their migration map.

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	This page was last modified Thu, Mar 20 2008 02:47 pm EST.		Contact: Dave Lundy