Rarely do I get a decent picture of my hummers. They do not like it when I sit near their favorite flowers with my camera. They zoom around overhead, chirping at me. Today I was persistent.
A word of warning: I am not a very good photographer!
Ruby-throated hummingbird at Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii (Turk's Cap)
And at my Cuphea 'David Verity' (my composter is in the pic, also!)
And at one of my feeders.
The little stinker thought she would use the feeder and bypass the plant my camera was focused on, but little did she know I had my zoom on!
That's great hummer!! The hummingbirds don't sit still for me either!!! LOL
For what it's worth, your photography is better than mine!!
Here's mine who is shy as well.
And another one
hummer girl. Is that Cuphea an annual where you are?
You did fine, hummer-girl ! Because of the lighter background, we could see the hummer. He looked natural. You were correct to pre-focus on one particular bloom. That takes a lot of patience, but pays off. Additionally, you are having fun. That is the important thing. Have you got a remote to fire the camera? That gives you some working distance necessary for nailing the most skittish birds. Many pro photographers also use a 2' x 3' sheet of light colored poster board for a background. Some even paint a design on the board. If you are focused on the object, you can throw the background out of focus (narrow depth of field) by using a wider aperture. May your days be accompanied by the sound of humming wings.
Need some of that cuphea... isn't that also called cigar plant? Loved those pictures.
Elaine
I have mine trained...LOL!!!
This one at the Black & Blue Salvia.
I am so jealous............. I haven't seen a hummer in weeks.
I had 3 that visited at 8am and 8 pm... almost every day for a couple of weeks.
I wonder whose garden they are visiting?
I love all your pictures! My hummers are diabolical. When I try to photograph them, I set-up my chair in one position and either focus on one plant or where several are all blooming in about a 5 foot area. What my hummers usually do, is buzz me while chirping their displeasure, then visit flowers or feeders not in camera range. They know I will probably be gone in about an hour, all the sitting still I can do, and they more or less wait me out. Little stinkers! Yesterday, I was focused on Canna indica, and the hummer went to the Hamelia patens on the other side of the tree. No shot there. But since there are numerous hummer attractors planted in that bed, I figured the Canna indica was next. Wrong! She flew to the Turk's Cap emerging below the Canna. I barely had time to refocus and click off 2 shots, with only 1 being any good. And then she took off. I gave up and went back inside.
The Cuphea 'David Verity' is an annual in my area. This is a first year plant for me. I am going to take cuttings for next year, maybe even overwinter the mother plant. Cuphea ignea is the Cigar Plant, it is a smaller shrubette with smaller flowers. I plant them every year also, another annual. I have even successfully grown C. ignea from seed. The 'David Verity' is a hybrid of C. ignea and another Cuphea.
My digital camera is old and does not have a remote capability. So I am going to have to sit in the sun to try and get pics of them at the Black & Blue Salvia and the Cuphea schumannii, but I am going to try!
I figured it was an annual, but it looks so BIG! Well I'll have to see about that for next year!
My fall migrants are due any day now, so I hope they like all the plants I have for them!
Mrs_Ed: The Cuphea 'David Verity' is a small shrub. Twice the size of the Cuphea ignea. But the flowers on the D.V. are larger than the ignea; easier for the hummer to probe. I have the D.V. in a 12-14" terracotta pot. It will probably be root bound when I remove it later this year. All the Cupheas put out a large root system and like long drinks of water when you water. My experience with the ignea is, the more sun it has the tighter the growth of flowers/leaves, the less sun it gets, the lankier the branches and further apart the leaves and blooms. Also, the bigger the growing container, the bigger the plant.
