Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today, activities like cooking, eating and then desperately exercising to try and burn off the gluttony are higher on my list than posting to the blog, so I’m going to make this one short.
Today we move far to the south of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge featured in the last to posts and into the tropical cloudforests of Panama. I made this image in January of 2008 in the mountains of western Panama near the town of Boquete. I was there scouting for a bird tour and enjoying the heavenly climate of Boquete. The hotel where I stayed, the excellent Villa Marita, has wonderful grounds, full of flower gardens, bird feeders and greenhouses. A dozen or so species of birds frequented the yard and this incredible hummer was one. It was drizzling lightly when I made this image, and it took fairly little skill to get this right. I aimed the big 500mm f4, composed and shot.
The image came off very well. I love the soft light and the clean gray background. The lighting really enhances the iridescent plumage and the bird’s posture could hardly be better. It’s sharp and clean. The main faults in the image were dealt with in Lightroom. They included a streak or two of rain, and a blurred flower on the lower right, all of which I easily cloned out. I am extremely happy with the final product. Thankful in fact…
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Dave, can I ask for a couple more entries on failures? I know they are harder to write, but they teach me a lot more about photography. “Almosts” and “good photos” are great, but the unexpected failures give the most insight.