Thanks everyone for your very kind comments.
My wife and I took our first vacation in 2 years and went for a week in San Francisco which we love and is the closest landfall from Hawaii (I really hate to fly these days).
She loves hummingbirds and told me I had to get some good shots (we don't have them here
). So I looked and looked and couldn't see any. With only a few days left we went to the zoo where we saw some several years ago. 3 hours later as we were leaving...still no hummers. I got lots of decent zoo shots, however,with my new 5D3 (this trip was the excuse I used on her to upgrade from my 7D). Just as we exited the gate, there was this pretty blue flower plant so I got my 5D3 out with the 70-200F/2.8LII. She was yelling haven't you taken enough photos over the last 3 hours (she is NOT a photog and was ready to leave after 1 hour). Just as I focused, that pretty hummer zooms in. I couldn't focus on him since he was jumping all over, so I just focused on the flower and fired away.
Encouraged, 3 days later, I went to the SF Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park to shoot some flowers. Just inside the entrance was this 30-40 feet tall red flowering tree. I walked toward it for some tree flower shots, when I noticed several small birds flying in and out. They were hummers! These guys really were attracted ( a sign called it the red flowering gum tree from western Australia). So I used my 5D3 and 100-400L @ 400mm shooting up into the tree from 15-50 feet away for over an hour to get those shots. I really got a stiff neck and sore back from all that bending and straining upwards but my wife was pleased with the photos! (Happy wife...Happy life
).
Maximilian..yes, I wish that spider would have made his web elsewhere.
rpt and J.R., thanks for you nice words.
Dolina and Mr. Bean...All were taken handheld in natural outdoor lighting and were heavily cropped since the first one was @200mm and the other 3 were @400mm and I was not real close and they are small birds.
Krob78...Thank you my friend for your comments. You have taught me a lot on CR about bird photog. I think that background (which was just some distant green foliage in shade) turned black due to underexposure. I didn't plan that but it was serendipity
and I like it too.
Jack Douglas...After your post, I do believe that is your green hummer. Flying south for the winter
I just made this Flickr account several days ago to post all my SF shots since a friend told me I really should. I am still trying to learn how to use it well. If you click on the photo, it will take you there where I have more hummers and also will keep adding landscape and zoo shots over the next few days.
