When you can give as good as you get! Fighting Orioles and Photographing hummingbirds!
“Take a hint you droning fat-kidneyed canker blossom! You don’t think I have insulted you enough?”
“I stand in your presence you lumpish flea-bitten fustilarian! I can eat at from this jam dish when I please you surly spur-galled maggot pie!”
“Hmmfff….think he believed me? Best to eat up and skedaddle! You don’t think he’ll come back with a rogue Oriole gang do you?”
“You missed the show Mrs. Oriole! I just sat here out of the way and watched the fight!” said Mr. Rose Breasted Grosbeak
“What did I miss? I am a bit busy eating!”
“A fight you say? Hmm…he never mentioned anything to me! I must inquire at home what happened! ha!”
You should never let orioles study Shakespearean insults! And for those that ask what is in the jar, it’s strawberry jam. It’s a canning jar, lid removed and I punched three holes in the ring that holds the lid on, an inexpensive Oriole feeder! I hang it with fishing line as it seems to help deter the ants! Not raccoons though;)
I haven’t had a lot of luck photographing the little Ruby-throated male hummingbird at my flowering hanging baskets. This little fellow prefers this oriole feeder which is much larger than his hummingbird feeder and the resting spot are obviously too big for him so he stands on it, thus the feet out on approach! The orioles say is not to their liking and I have never seen them use it…jam is better than sugar water!
Hummingbird photography is time consuming. Patience is the key, and lots of good natural light. I like the morning light when it hits them from the front and side. Noontime creates a lot of shadows. I generally shoot at a a pretty high ISO 6400 here, F8 at 600mm at 1/8000 sec. The eye focus setting is also amazing! The less light, the slower the shutter speed goes! Topaz DeNoise does an amazing job if it gets too noisy! I do get a fair bit of reflection from the feeder onto his tum but that’s OK! The background here makes it a bit tougher to focus so having no plants or flowers too close in the background helps out. I also shoot at 2.2-10M setting on my Tamron 150-600 G2 lens so it doesn’t try to focus on the far background.
It’s always a treat when it all comes together and you get that look! Hummingbirds are what got me back into photography in Baja where we had so many! IT was easy! They were everywhere, a bit tougher here! I’ve bought a few hummingbird specific plants (trumpet vine and columbines) and that hopefully will tempt a few more, until then, we’ll wait for the babies and migration when they all start to head South! Remember, we are always learning! I still have 400 pages on my camera manual to read! Hahahahaha! Stay tuned for a donkey outing with our wonderful Lanark County Camera Club! Their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/375517142647627
