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It's the Little Things in Life we Take for Granted...
It's the Little Things in Life we Take for Granted...
landcamera


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2007-06 (Advanced Editing V)
Camera: Nikon D2X
Lens: Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro for Nikon
Location: Back Yard
Date: Jun 17, 2007
Aperture: f6.3
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/500
Galleries: Nature, Macro
Date Uploaded: Jun 24, 2007
I was going to enter this in the Negative Spaces challenge but decided to enter the Puzzle Macro since both were exclusive member challenges. We have several hummingbird feeders on the east side of the house and each evening there are 5 or six birds fighting for the right to feed. This male Ruby Throated as one of the more aggressive birds. I set up one 1000 watt Novatron light with a softbox about 3 ft from the feeder. The camera was mounted on a Bogen video tripod which allowed me to get about 6 feet off the ground and still provided a lot of stability. I spent about an hour standing in a step ladder, 30 minutes was letting the birds get use to me so when I actually started shooting the only thing that caused them alarm was the flash going off. I have a lot of blank images and a lot more that were blurred since these little guys and gals can move so bloody fast. This little guy finally decided the light and my presence was nothing to be alarmed by so he decided to pose for me. The following are the post processing steps I made.

Converted from RAW
Assigned sRGB Profile
Cropped image
UMS
Curves
Cloned out small imperfection under right wing
Brightness/Contrast
Shadow/Highlight
Neat Image
Selective color to enhance the red feathers
Resized Image to 640x480 96dpi
Sharpen
Sharpen Fade to 45%
Saved to web
Posted to DPC

No hummingbirds were injured or eaten in the making of this image. But they were glad when I finished so they could go back to their daily lives.


Statistics
Place: 30 out of 556
Avg (all users): 6.6744
Avg (commenters): 7.3000
Avg (participants): 6.7573
Avg (non-participants): 6.3462
Views since voting: 1414
Views during voting: 218
Votes: 129
Comments: 11
Favorites: 2 (view)

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
07/07/2007 02:11:23 PM
Beautiful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/06/2007 06:45:49 PM
Great closeup! I like the how you did't freeze his wings.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2007 05:41:51 PM
Very nice capture. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2007 06:21:42 AM
I love your use of negative space...it's giving the bird something to fly into...great light and crisp focus...9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2007 04:27:57 AM
Interesting composition, not sure it really works for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/03/2007 05:10:16 PM
What a lovely pose you've captured! Very sweet - pretty colors and good background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/02/2007 04:51:21 PM
Very sharp and in focus, I like the composition.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/02/2007 02:42:24 PM
stunning and sharp rufous/Allen's. maybe a bit too much space on top, maybe somewhat distracting from the excellent hummer.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/02/2007 09:24:39 AM
Need to crop some off the top.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/01/2007 08:41:58 PM
Wonderful lighting, crisp detail and amazing motion!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/01/2007 11:52:04 AM
very nice capture 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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