I am a Nikon guy, so I am uncertain about your equipment; but getting fair shots with ambient light - if the situation is bright enough - can be done fairly easily with hummers. Or, using one strobe can be worthwhile, but I use a cord and take the light off of the camera, in order to provide some depth and texture; otherwise, the shots can be flat. These were shot with a zoon set at about 100mm.

Patience is the key. Hummingbirds will come back to the same place, over and over again. Particularly if you have a feeder. So getting in position and staking them out with a cable or wireless shutter release is easy, once you get the behavioral pattern. A tripod is a must, in order to get the focus area set and positioned. If you do that, you can control your shots with some semblance of certainty.

My son was giving me some crap as I was sorting through my equipment. He noticed that I have all my camera batteries lettered. I have six, lettered A-F. When he asked me why I told him I use them in order, A through F as they run down and get recharged. So, for example, when D comes out of the camera, E goes in and D goes straight to the charger. He laughed at me and called me anal.

I just want to keep usage and charge cycles even across all the batteries.

Anyone else manage their batteries in a similar way? Or am I just weird?

Dennis

The Hastas have started blooming and the rain just seems to keep coming. These were shot with my Tamron 180mm macro lens. I'm trying to get better at water drops on flowers & leaves. Part of the problem is lighting & location. They're in the front of our house and the sky has been rather cloudy in the morning when I'm out shooting. I may have to try using a ring light to see if that improves the lighting. We have some small cottontails living in our neighborhood. Still not sure where they hole up. Seems like every morning at least 1 of them is nibbling on the grass in our front yard. This was shot at 1/60th sec. at f/6.7 with my Tamron 150-600 at 600mm handheld. ISO was set at 800.

Ole and Lena were invited to a "couples swap" over at Lars' house. They even brought a gift to exchange. When they arrived, the men were instructed to write their wife's name on a card and place it in a bowl. The men were all getting excited to start. Ole couldn't see how a gift exchange could be so exciting but he went along with it.

The next thing our Ole knows is that he is under arrest for running down Main St. naked. The officer was trying to sort this out asking Ole why he was naked in town.

Ole said, "Vell, ve vas at a party at Lars' place. After ve all signed in, Lars said, 'OK men, time to take off all your clothes and go to town!' I guess I vas da first von here!"