Aw, man. I think some of you guys need to just go start a hummin' bird forum and get on outta here. You're making the rest of us feel inadequate and sorry we're not in another hobby. Yep, that's it, a pro hummingbird forum. You don't belong in here with the rest of us. You have too much good subject matter. :-)

Yow, well I'd crop that sky outta there, looks too phony, I'd clone that snow off that mountain, and get rid of all them ugly colored trees and crop some of that bottom out so I could bring that farm house up closer get it off the bullseye, and make it look like Spring again, my favorite season. Terrible, terrible picture. You outta just throw your camera away or give it to Goodwill.
:)

Try not to have a senior moment, hook up the catheter or put on your depends, and don't drop the camera. :)

I see. That would make my remarks a little different. Judging by your profile pic, you appear too young for that terrible state you seem to find yourself in - retirement. If you are that young, then you must've done something right. Congratulations! It is indeed to stay up late and sleep in, eh? I don't mind it at all. Good luck with Gimp. I really don't have the patience for either that or PS. Maybe when I get where I can't move around any longer, say around 85 or so. :-) Enjoy your day.

Looks good va1940. You did a good job. I had more or less deduced that if I tried to clone in that "disturbed" water surface pattern that I would have to blur anything I changed and you seem to have substantiated that point for me. I think the lady could sit anywhere in the frame but I chose the one I did because I thought it best typified the way they look when they land and the long trail, which was, incidentally, severely truncated, demonstrates that than any of the other shots in the sequence. As someone said in a post yesterday, it helps to know what I was trying to say with the photo. I meant to induce a feeling of tension and thought the best way to do that was put her too close to the leading edge. I guess we can't always convey what we desire without causing an imbalance somewhere. I appreciate your edit and figure you did it about as good as it could be done. Thank you.

I'll be glad to try to assist you. To be more specific in my answer I would want to know if you bought the camera new in a box with other stuff and what kind of camera it is, and whether you have a memory card you can take out.

a. A generic answer is that if you bought the camera new, there's a cord in the box that connects your camera and your computer.

b. You would want to install the software on a disc also in the box, if you got one.

c. Read the instructions that came with your camera how to do those things. It should be fairly explanatory and should get you started off.

d. There is a thing called a "card reader" you can get a any computer store that plugs into your computer. If your camera has a memory card, you'll want to match up your card with a reader specifically for that card. There are several kinds of cards so your reader needs to match up with the one you have. Then, you can the card out of your camera and put it in the reader and transfer your images over to your computer. Your computer sees the card reader as another drive and you can just drag and drop the images into a folder you've set up to hold them.

e. You should already have some software on your computer that lets you look at your images, maybe even "doctor" your images some. Perhaps you're already familiar with that from prior use in looking at images on your computer.

If you bought a used camera and don't have anything else, the answer is to get a card reader for sure and follow on down the list I've given you here.

That should get you going in the right direction and once past that, some reading and experimentation and you should be up and running in short order and then you can get further help online if need be. Good luck with it.

Thanks. I'm sort of leaning that way too and for the same reason.

Thanks. I value your opinion and appreciate it.

1. Things might be better if I were to always follow the rules but my problem with that is that I tend to shoot things that move and moving things don't always understand "the rules." When I morph into Dr. Doolittle, maybe things'll change for the good.

2. Thank you, profusely!

3. "Can...should," that's right. No reason to start now. :-)

4. Over-cooked goose. Never a fav of mine. As I said earlier, I don't recall cooking this one at all. I don't cook every shot. Some actually stand alone as created. I do have the "highest quality" settings on my camera cranked way up an now and then on occasion everything comes together, light, angle, exposure, etc., and causes an overkill. I don't shoot raw generally, simply .jpg and don't spend a lot of time post processing. I have a version of PS Elements Ver 2, that came with my last camera several years ago, and it doesn't have all the tools the current ver has, what ver 9 we're up to now so I can't do some things and don't want to do others. Haven't, for instance, done "layers" as of yet. I'm just a loose cannon out there firing away and trying to remember everything I've read while my goose is floating out of range. Spontaneous, I think they call that.

5. I love Mergansers, especially the female and that red head.

6. They're not tumblers as such but they have extremely short wings, comparatively, and bigger bodies and fly very fast with a high wing flap rev. They're far from graceful and it would seem as though it is an extreme effort for them to even fly in the first place. When they come in to land they toss their bodies into a controlled slide. I would bet that if they did the same on land they would tumble but I've never seen one of them on land. I don't think they spend much time out of the water. I've included a couple of shots of three males taking off, not for critique but to show the other half. They're really fast and hard to catch. I've yet to get a male taking off, flying, or landing that I'm happy with. These were shot with my older EOS 20D, 8 mpx, and 400 non IS lens, hand held. The last of these three pics is the redhead landing again. I was in burst mode and as she slid through the frame I got several shots. I just happen to prefer the first one I posted because I thought it best represented the action of the bird landing.

7. I like your profile pic, a lot. Let's see, I'm in here to critique and be critiqued, right. Your profile pic, I don't think a little more skin would be offensive, at all, and... :twisted:

Actually, I got these first two reversed in true time sequence...


This should have been first, just lifting off after a running assist...


The redheaded lady understands the rule of 3rds but simply seems to be stretching and flappin' her wings, not landing + the head is dark...

The rule of thumb here at altitude is "feeders in by Sept 1." We get some early storms in here at times and if the feeders are still out the hummers get caught and don't have time to get far enough south. Colorado is on at least part of the migratory path for hummers and a wonderfully large number stay here all summer. It's a mecca for hummer shots and I do have a few won't bring mine out now that I've seen yours. You've answered the question of "how is an absolutely superior hummer shot supposed to look." Great job. I like Carmen's ideas if they're workable. Next spring might be a bit soon unless you could plant or transplant some larger bushes but the next year for sure, but then you know that. More, please!

Uh oh! I must be careful with my witticisms with you. That's good to know. As you've no doubt noticed, my policy is "lock and load - fire at will." I'll be careful.

Hi Carmen. Yes, it is cropped. All four are the same shot cropped and rotated, the top one being as I shot it. I was trying to decided which orientation was more pleasing and if it should be left alone or cropped tighter into the flower. I'm a bit of an uncivilized roughneck and my sensitivity level isn't where I need it to be just yet. Couldn't decide. Thanks. I'll give it a shot. I'm sure there's a *right* balance in there somewhere.

Super lovely, excellent job, all of them. You have an eye and excellent technique. Thanks for pointing us there. I enjoyed immensely.

Ian, sounds like some spammer has hijacked your email address and is using it to send out spam messages en masse. You may want change your email address and close that one out with your service. I recommend a gmail account through Google. It's real easy to sign up, you get 7.5 gig of storage and they make a sincere effort to keep that kind of activity to a minimum and you can have more than one account. Others in here may have a different solution. That would be mine. I've had to do it for the same reason.

George, my system may be too laborious for most people so I will sum it up simply:

Use all possible methods available to you, multiple copies and have at least one copy "off-site," that is away from where your computer is, friend's house, bank deposit box, etc.

Don't keep using your hard drive until it wears out and quits on you which it eventually will.

Use, as you are, cd's/dvd's, make 3 copies 1 off-site

Use online storage, Carbonite, Smug Mug - may cost you $50 or so a year but gives you another chance to restore your images.

That's it in a nutshell. It's not nearly as complicated as what I do but the consensus in here is that those steps should be fairly adequate. If you are interested in my methodology it's up in my original post that started this thread.