Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

For the couple of weeks I have been taking photos of hummingbirds using my 300mm f/2.8 lens and extension tubes so I could get to within about 4 feet of the feeder. My camera has been in the house shooting out an open window. The birds would return to feed about every five or ten minutes and all was going well. Then I decided to switch lens and replaced my telephoto with my 100mm macro and moved the camera outside the house to within about 15 inches of the feeder. I use auto-focus and six synchronized flashes to take my pictures. The birds came next to the macro lens and I pressed my radio remote. The lens auto-focused making buzzing sound, the flashes all fired, and the bird took off. I did manage to capture two photos of the fleeing bird. The strange thing was that it never returned. I know the does not mind the flashes, I have been using them for weeks. I wondered what spooked them. I walked outside to the feeder and looked back at the lens while I pressed the remote. I was surprised to see how that lens telescoped back and forth as it searched for focus. It nearly doubled in length. It looked very much like a snake, lunging at the feeder! That's what spooked the birds! I hope they recover and come back to feed.

I have a lot of very good photos in my camera (RAW) but the computer I use to process my photos is down for repair. As soon as I get my computer back from the Apple store I'll process and post a few. I won't post them on this form because a humming bird is slightly larger that my FF imaging array. I'll post them as "NOT True Macro."

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Interesting comparison of two lenses for similar results.

Here are my hummingbird photos posted in the Photo Gallery: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-35331-1.html

When you have your hummingbird images ready, please post them in the Photo Gallery as I did.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I will do that Nikonian72, and thanks for the link. I found your remark helpful.

My 300mm f/2.8 lens is auto-focus and provides a way to limit and define the focus range the lens must search in. Like you, I also found that spot A-F worked best for me. I hope to have my computer back this week, maybe tomorrow. The problem I have is, the little guys move so fast that that the camera/lens has a hard time focusing fast enough to capture them in flight. It's possible to catch them when they are stationary with their beak stuck in a feeder but that not what I'm after.
Even when I do manage to capture them "focus wise" they are not always in the frame the way I want. I was forced to add an extension tube to the lens to get as close as I wanted to be. Here is a link to an earlier effort:

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-47262-1.html

By adding the extension tubes I'm able to get within four feet of the birds and make use of A-F.

The ones in my camera look much, much better now. I keep learning with every attempt. One of the problems is depth of field so I crank up the f-stops very high. I worry about diffraction. I can not really say I noticed any. In an attempt to lower my f-stops I added a polarizing filter to the lens; this seemed to help the colors (in the ones I have not posted yet).
Currently I'm using f/10.

Thanks for the reply and look for my post in the Photo Gallery soon.

twowindsbear

Is there a way to tell your camera to only take a pic when the subject is at a pre-focused spot? This way you could aim your camera to a point along the 'flight path' to the feeder, & when the hummer flew into that specific area, the camera would trigger & 'catch' the bird.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Excellent commentary on your process. Thank you. We look forward to your results.

P.S. I think that someone should discuss with admin about starting a Bird Photography Forum on UHH. One photographer could manage, as is done in the other forums, or a couple of photographers could co-manage.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Ah yes twowindbear, that is the crux of the problem. My lens is really quite good and has many built in options including selectable pre-focus, or I could just use manual. The field of depth is very narrow, I would guess less than a half an inch, when you add extension tubes and force the lens to work that close to the subject. The bird seldom approaches the same way. I have stop action photos of them totally up side down with their beak in the feeder! Who would imagine that that they would hoover upside down, not me, until I saw it! They contort their bodies in all sort off interesting and beautiful ways. That's one of the thing that make them so fascinating to me. There is of course the other option of letting the camera auto-focus before it trips the shutter. This works well because the camera will not fire unless it thinks the bird is in focus. Even this has a problem because the bird is moving so fast, and the depth of field so narrow that the bird can move slightly out of focus in the short period of time the camera decides focus is archived and then fires the shutter. I have taken hundreds of these photos and, like Douglass, have determined spot pre-focus mode works best, not perfect but it gives the highest yield of keepers.

BTW, the effective shutter speed is 1/50,000 when my flashes are used the way I'm doing it. I could never find that spec published by Sony but that's a number Pete on UHH gave me. My shutter speed is really only 1/250 but the blinding flash of light from my flashes lasts for only 1/50,000 blotting out the ambient light from the sun!

Geeze, I wish I could attach one of my examples of how beautiful these creatures are when one is sharply focused on the tiny details in their iridescent feathers and they are flooded with the light of three flashes only inches from them. I have a couple of photos where I have caught them with their eye lids half closed. "Faster than a hummingbird's blink!"

Douglass, I know you defy conventional wisdom and use very high f-stops to obtain DOF in your macro shots. How is it that diffraction limits do not stop you from achieving the great results you get? I'm very confused by the diffraction issue.

PS. The phone just rang. It was the Apple store informing me my computer has been repaired! Look for some knock you socks off photos tomorrow.

Dave

twowindsbear

I'd REALLY enjoy viewing your pix!

Thanks in advance for posting them.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Here they are:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-49710-1.html#809289

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I left comments on the Hummingbird thread.

chapjohn Loc: Tigard, Oregon

The Sony 100mm macro is a great lens, but it does move out to get 1:1, almost doubling in length.