Birds in Nature - images of wild birds by Richard Ditch

Subject: Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Place: Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Superior, AZ, USA
Date: April 2003
Equipment: Nikon N90S, Nikkor AF-S 300/2.8 & TC20E (= 600/5.6), tripod
Film: Fujichrome Sensia 100
Exposure: Aperture priority matrix metered, cloudy bright, fill flash @ -1.7
Scan: Minolta Dimage, 95% of frame

Commentary: I first photographed this bird and nest on a sunny morning, and thought that the heavy shadows cast by nearby branches were a bit too distracting. When we had cloudy skies 3 days later I returned for this shot and found no shadows at all on the bird or nest. The winds that day meant I had to worry about subject movement, so I could only stop down 2 stops to f/11.

Some viewers might prefer this image with a touch more contrast, but this is a pretty good match to the way the scene looked and the way film recorded it.