Birds Birds Birds!

I decided to spend a day with the birds a couple of days ago. The top photo is a pine warbler, the middle a white breasted nuthatch who actually picked up that chunk of suet that was the same size as him and promptly dropped it Lol! He bit off more than he could chew but I retrieved it for him so he could finish his meal. The bottom photo is a male downy woodpecker. These were shot using my Nikon 2.8 70-200 VR lens on a tripod (VR mode turned off since it was on the tripod which can actually cause blurry photos if left on while on a tripod). I hope to one day be a full time professional nature and landscape photographer but at this point in time my  photo sales are just enough to sustain my photography as a hobby and pay for my website and a savings plan towards better gear. If you would like to contribute to my journey to professional photographer, my photos can be purchased as greeting cards, prints , canvases, iphone & Galaxy cases and throw pillows.  Thanks for stopping by. Photo Links below if you wish to purchase anything :

It's Not Just Luck Hummingbird Photography Tips

This photo is the result of trial and error that basically took me all day to get. I achieved part of my goal (freezing the hummingbird wings) but the other part of my goal I did not. My next goal is to figure out how to light that beautiful red gorget for maximum color. This photo was created  partly from hummingbird photo tips from one of my favorite hummingbird photographers Gregory Scott and partly from lots of patience. Check out Gregory Scotts amazing work HERE. Not only are his photos amazing but he's a great human being as well, willing to share tips with other photographers to help them rather than keeping all of his photo secrets to himself. I wanted to pay it forward so here are some tips that will hopefully help another photographer who loves these little flying gems as much as I do. 

 One of  the tips I learned from Gregory Scott was to use a macro lens to get great detail. Most people including myself believed that you needed a really long telephoto to get hummingbird shots but this is not always the case. For this photo I used a 105 mm 2.8 macro lens on a tripod. The reason for the macro lens is detail. You can set his to a really large f-stop number like 18- 22 and this helps a lot with your depth of field for focusing so if you prefocus the focus is a little more forgiving. The camera was set 3-4 feet away from the feeder.  I prefocused in the area where I wanted the hummingbird to hover and sat in a chair with my cable release in hand and waited and shot and waited and shot until I got the right combination of the little flying gem hovering where I wanted and the light to freeze the wings. 

The settings for this photo were F-stop 18, shutter speed 320, ISO 200 and 3 flahes set to manual 1/32 power including the on camera pop up flash that triggered the other two Nikon S-B800 flases. I also used a piece of foam core board that you could purchase at any craft store for the back ground. The back ground was placed about 4 or 5 feet away from the feeder where I was trying to get the hummingbirds to hover. 

Most people think that hummingbird flight is frozen with a fast shutter speed but that is not the case. It's flash duration that freezes the wings. And believe it or not this is done but setting the flash to a lower power rather than higher power. Bigger isn't always better. These settings are not written in stone as far as the camera settings so put your camera on manual and just take some test shots to get the light to where you want it by adjusting the shutter speed and f stop combos until you get what you want. I also used the lowest ISO I could because these keeps the noise down. 

In order to get the flahses to do what you want, you need to have control over the light which you can't do in sunlight. I shot this in the shade on a cloudy day and I had the best results around 4 pm when the sun behind the clouds went behind the house. These were all shot on our deck using the shade from eves of our house but you could do this in your yard if you have deeply shady spot. I used a sprig of flowers inserted into a hummingbird feeder port and I taped off the other 3 ports to get the hummingbird to hover where I wanted. 

I photograph on a budget so I have two tripods and two off camera flashes. I used one tripod for the camera and another for one of the flashes but since I only have two tripods for my 3rd tripod I used the arm of a chair and some electrical tape to hold the flash in place. The other part of my studio was the piece of white foam core board that I used for the back ground.

 I hope these tips are helpful to others learning their way in photography and on a budget like myself. I'd like to be able to afford more flashes but in the mean time I'll make due with what I have and continue to try to get the most of what I have. 

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and for following my progress as a nature photographer. If you'd like to see more of my work, click on the photo below. 

2016 Shenandoah Valley Birds

After the encouragement of some friends I decided to test the waters with calendars. After posting some photos of birds on Face Book a friend suggested I make a bird calendar so here is a link to my first calendar . This calendar features a different bird for every month and each bird is a bird that can be found in the Shenandoah Valley.  If you are want to get ahead on your Christmas shopping or are looking for a unique birthday gift, this would make a great gift for anyone who loves birds and finds inspiration from watching them.

I may be offering other gifts as well and most likely another calendar or two will be in the works. Check back here for updates. Thanks for stopping by to read my blog. 

Beauty In Winter From Colorful Birds

Winter...is it the longest season or does it just seem that way to a Southern California born girl living in the rural mountains of Virginia? I know Spring is surely around the corner since the end of February is thankfully approaching. It's hard to believe though when currently the temperature is 13 degrees which is actually quite an imporovement from the -1 that the morning started with! I'm trying to stay positive though and find what beauty I can in this cold and color muted world of winter. Luckily the cold does come with a silver lining in the form of beautiful birds like this very chilly male cardinal and this hungry female pileated woodpecker who seems to be saying "More Suet Please!". If we are lucky we will get to see the male pileated this year as well. The male and female pileated woodpeckers look identical at first glance but can be told apart by what I call their mustache. The males have a red mustache (see photo below) and the females have a black mustache (see photo above). Well I'm off to make some more suet for our hungry hoards of winter birds. Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and view my photos. More of my photos can be viewed at

:http://lara-ellis.artistwebsites.com/index.html

Helping Our Feathered Friends

This weekend took on a sense of urgency for our feathered friends. The temperatures in the valley were ranging from 5 degrees to the teens but with the wind gusts of up to 45 miles an hour the wind chills got as low as 25 below zero! Some people don't think that we humans should interefere with nature and wildlife...but the way I look at it is that since we already have altered the balance of nature by our presence here on planet earth, it's up to us to help take care of our fellow creatures. We had a steady stream of birds at the feeder all day long today. We kept them fed with home made peanut butter suet, rose hips, black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. We were even surprised by a visit from a rather large female pileated woopecker. We also saw cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, juncos, purple finches, gold finches, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches and one of my personal favorites, wrens.

Beauty In The Ordinary

So I went down to the Hawksbill Greenway with my big lens hoping to see a kingfisher or a great blue heron...but there were none to be seen anywhere along the Hawksbill creek. BUT there were ducks everywhere! I didn't find the flashy king fisher or the regal great blue heron but the beautfiul glint of green in the sunlight caught my eye on this ordinary mallard duck.I guess beauty is where you find it.  :-)