Today dawned warm and sunny. After breakfast this morning, I set up the camera on the deck, “just in case” and went about my around the house chores.
A few minutes before ten, I heard the call of a red-bellied woodpecker announcing its arrival in the vicinity of the feeders. I, of course, headed for the camera. While I was watching the red-belly, I noticed the hummingbird out of the corner of my eye.
The first two photographs (below) were made within twenty seconds of each other.
Just before eight this evening I put the camera away and started the grill to cook supper. Not more than five minutes later, I heard the red-belly call again. I was able to get the camera back out and make few more photos before he flew off again.
The lighting in the two sets of photos is about as different as it can be. Bright, harsh sun in the morning and very low, soft light in the evening about a half hour before sunset*.
[scrollGallery id=360 autoscroll = false width = 800 height = 600 useCaptions = true]
* For the photo geeks, the exposure in the morning was ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/750 sec. The evening exposure was ISO 800, f/4 and 1/60 sec. If I’ve done the math right this is about a seven stop difference.
I had to work a bit harder to clean up the noise in the ISO 800 exposures but the six or seven year old D300 still does a pretty good job… me thinks!