This will be my first "real" blog post on Blogger.  I have a lot to learn

We have a lot of hummingbirds.  We have been feeding them for about 40 years.  Maybe a little more.  We often have a dozen or more at a time.  They are not an easy subject.  Now, I know that most of the people on G+ or that read Blogs like this know all about this but ...  The trade-off between focal plane resolution, focal length, lighting, ISO setting, shutter speed, depth-of-field, etc. is not exactly aligned with getting razor sharp images of flying hummingbirds.  Yes, there is a lot of light available in my location but I have been using a 70-200mm lens at 200mm and with a 1.6X teleconverter.  The box in the parameter space is pretty small to get a really sharp image.  Today I sat flat down on my butt (after falling on it) while struggling to get a steady camera hand-held and did some experimenting.  Yes, I will be able to get some decent images ... particularly with a tripod and gimbal head.  The depth-of-field is pretty thin.  The camera shake filter in PhotoShop is quite useful.  Here are my humble results from a 10 minute shooting session ... all I could tolerate in my cramped position.  More to come.

I have done considerably better with hand held standing shots in the back yard while stalking the critters.  They become reasonably tolerant after chasing them around for a few days.  These were shot at ISO 800 with a D800E.  The high pixel density has considerable advantages for cropping. No, it is not pixel-pride ... just a fact.  It appears that higher ISO is appropriate for this situation to get the depth-of-field a bit larger.  It is also going to be a matter of luck to get the critters to pose with the entire body more nearly in a single plane and to catch them in those very brief instants at the peak of a wing sweep.  They do alighn their body plane at right angles to the "look vector" quite naturally when they look over the photographer which makes the depth of field as good as it gets. Shortening the focal length will also help.  However, that means a higher crop ... which may look good on a screen but won't print large.  Another trade-off. 

Don't these little creatures have magnificent tail fans?  I guess the ones with the brighter tail feather colors are the Rufous variety (or Allen).