Just sat for a little while in the back yard to see if I could get a hummingbird shot. Got that and a few more...
Still learning from good folks like you...shot with my canon 60d, borrowed 28-300L from a friend, handheld, ISO 400, various shutter speeds...and just waited.
C&C welcome, very new, and you folks are great teachers.

This is my male guarding the juice.


Here he takes a bit to refresh.


Then, this guy drops into the yard to visit...a Cooper's Hawk


Jumps to the fence and spies a lizard in my wood pile.


"Litte Bit" wanders out for a stroll.


Last thing to drop in...a Bluebird.

Yup, been watching quite a few of these fights. I've got a group of what seems to be 6 or 8 around. I watch a male stand on the top all the time guarding...or sitting in a nearby tree and as soon as another shows up to the feeder, it's on. I just can't get that fight photo though. Nice shot!

Stepped outside the other day and this hawk is on my fence. Snapped a couple of photos but then sneaked out around my shed and got this one. Can't believe she stayed there as long as she did.
Shot this at ISO 400, 300mm, f8.0, 1/80 sec., handheld/braced against my shed with PP in Lightroom. Wished I'd been able to missed getting that top fence rail in the foreground so you could see her tail.
C&C welcome, and thanks for the lessons learned already!

Still very new at this stuff, and learning so much from all of you...thanks for that! Been trying to learn this gig since last fall.
I love watching these hummers and getting a photo of one is quite the challenge, for me, at least. Here's one right after a terrible rainstorm that blew through. He's a little wet, can you tell?
Anyway, shot with my Canon 60D, ISO 100, 300mm, f5.6, 1/50 sec., and handheld. I'm lucky to have a professional photographer/friend that's letting me play with his 28-300L lens. It's a monster of a lens to carry around, but really, really nice.

All wet!

Thanks, Joe!

Joe, that's funny! Let me clarify a bit, and I'll start by saying I'm lucky. Thanks, really for the complement.
My son took the first one on his cellphone at the vets's so we could see how 'Little Bitty' did with it.
I got my camera, the 60D last fall, and have read and re-read the book, learn tons from this site and folks like you, bought a few lens besides the kit 18-135.
I'm lucky enough to be friends with professional wedding photographer who will let me use his "L" lens - and this one was his 28-300.
But it's practice, practice, and practice. I'm attempting to learn to shoot in everything except automatic...just refuse to do that so I'm forced to learn how everything relates. Believe me, the delete button is my friend.
And then I'm learning Lightroom to edit the pics a bit.
Thanks again, I really appreciate that!

My son works in a vet and had the honor of helping mending this little thing up after it was hit by a car, and left in the median to die. Nice older gentleman brought her in and is paying all the bills and if he doesn't take her, looks like we have her.
New to photography, learning a lot, appreciate what I'm getting from all of you.

Cellphone shot...My son made the wheelchair for her.


At peace.

Thanks for all this information! Lots of ideas here.

Hope I'm not moving too far from the OP. I'm glad to see this question too.
I've been waiting for something to come up on Craigslist, looking at eBay, etc. hoping to get a decent deal.
But I appreciate mooseeyes comment about staying away from traditional camera bags...etc. Always wondered about that.
In going non-traditional as an option, what do you do for padding, and dividing compartments?

Really cool looking! Love those big eyes(?) that seem to change color with the angle.

Dave, yes, this is really good stuff. If I could only put the time into it...but I'm gonna keep plugging along.
I'll take this and go back to the speedlight manual, and just keep playing with the buttons. I'm gonna get a good shot yet!

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll check out the macro link you provided Nikonian and have a look at that.
I was shooting in Tv. Not even sure about the flash in manual or ETTL - I'm finding out that the speedlight is a whole different animal in my brain. I'm probably treating the flash like a point and shoot camera.
I'm understanding about the aperture being wide open though and how that affects the dof...something I didn't even think about when I hit the button, and one of those things that have to at least go through my mind when I take a shot.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions, I'll get to that link here in a bit.

Had my 60d for about six months, practicing a lot and deleted a lot! Love the hog for all the help!
Here's an unknown spider but is the best shot I've gotten of one so far.
Handheld, ISO400, 100mm macro lens, f/2.8, 1/250 shutter. Used a canon 430 flash with a white index card to get a bit more 'down' light.

Mr. Spider

blueberry pie filling?

Great shots! As a woodworker I really appreciate these, they tell a great story! Nothing like working a piece of wood from log all the way through the finished project.