Day 19—A Favorite Thing

I was hoping to photograph raindrops on roses for today’s challenge, “A Favourite Thing” (the group admins are Aussies and Kiwis, hence, the addition of the “u”), but the anticipated rain hasn’t yet materialized and, even if it did, I discovered that my roses are no longer in bloom. With no rain and no roses, I tried photographing a black olla that I picked up in Mexico more than 40 years ago and, that has been on display in my home ever since. However, despite my affection for this large blob of a pot, I discovered that it is not particularly interesting nor is it remotely photogenic.

Fortunately, another of my favorite things, a hummingbird, materialized outside at the feeder. I went out and set up the tripod, smugly prefocused the camera on the feeder, and set the remote shutter release so I didn’t need to recheck in the viewfinder. That was a big mistake. After a couple of shots when the hummer did return, I realized that the focus was on the feeder, not on the bird so the resulting photos were fuzzy. I refocused and rechecked the shot through the viewfinder and managed to get two in focus shots. Then a few raindrops fell so I ended my day’s quest for the perfect hummingbird shot.

I wish I’d remembered my 2012 Day 1 hummingbird shot where I successfully used the on camera flash because today was much darker than that day and the resulting shot, without flash, was a little dark. I bumped the exposure up +1.5 and cropped the shot. However, the hummer is in focus and since birds and, in particular, hummingbirds, are among my most favorite things, I think it worked out pretty well for me, despite my cavalier approach today.

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Focal Length 300mm
ISO 400
f/5.6
1/200
Cropped/Exposure +1.5