I was so delighted to be able to photograph this juvenile male Anna’s Hummingbird the other morning. I captured lots of images of him in just under three minutes. He was quite the model. Here he’s eyeing the fountain, the rim of which is visible in the lower right.
Hummingbirds love to bathe. Of all the birds that bathe in my fountains, the hummingbirds seem to be the most enthusiastic bathers. And they start to bathe very early in their lives. This is a juvenile male Anna’s Hummingbird who was at the edge of the fountain flitting in and out of the stream when I walked outside to clip some chives. I didn’t see him until I was just a few feet away and he just kept flitting in and out of the water not concerned with my presence. I got the impression he was pretty used to bathing there. I retrieved my camera from the kitchen table and walked slowly toward him. He allowed me to move within minimum focusing distance of the Nikkor 300mm PF lens which is just under five feet and because I was using the crop sensor D500 and had my 1.4X teleconverter attached so I had a 600mm reach. His developing gorget glows magenta in the last image. I love these little guys.
Nikon D500, Nikkor 300mm PF, Nikon TC-14EIII.
As I rounded the corner just at the beginning of my walk the other morning, a sweet, heady scent stopped me in my tracks. I was suddenly transported back 45 years to the place my husband lived when we were first dating. The scent was honeysuckle and the huge hedge of honeysuckle outside Ron’s apartment in 1976 seemed to suddenly be in front of me. They say that smells have a stronger link to memory and emotion than any of the other senses. I believe it. I hadn’t seen or smelled honeysuckle since he left that apartment when we got married. It brought back fond memories of those early days. The honeysuckle I smelled yesterday probably escaped from a neighbor’s yard. It was mostly lost in the other shrubs by the sidewalk but a single sprig emerged from the center of a large rock rose shrub and the morning breeze wafted its lovely scent in the air. It was such a nice experience I knew I had to commemorate it. And so, once again, my flower filching tendencies emerged. I picked the sprig and brought it home so I could add it to my floral shelter-in-place focus shift photograph collection.
Alstroemeria is commonly called Peruvian Lily. Photographing flowers has given me a meaningful distraction during the long days of isolation. It has become almost a daily ritual with me. I love the look of focus shifting so that all of the flowers are in focus. The stark black background really gives emphasis to the flowers and makes them seem to almost leap off the page . Nikon Z6, FTZ, Nikkor 105 f/2.8 Micro Lens.
I found myself on the patio at about 5:30 with a glass of my current favorite red, Spellbound Syrah, as the breezes began to pick up and the temperature was a delightful 70 something. I had my Nikon D500 in my lap with my 300mm PF and 1.4X teleconverter , anticipating that a hummer might appear at one of the feeders. Much to my delight, a female Anna’s visited the feeder several times. Aaah. Backyard birding with wine. What better way to spend an evening alone?
