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Working with Aperture
I saw this hummingbird and didn’t have time to make
any elaborate preparations. The 400mm lens I used
(600mm in 35mm equivalent terms) is far too long to
expect to hand-hold effectively, although the image
stabilization helped.
Hummingbirds have long tongues that are constantly
in motion when they consume aphids and other small
plant parasites. The wide-open aperture, and shallow
depth of field, put the emphasis on the outstretched
tongue rather than the whole hummingbird, and tells
the relatively unknown story of this bird’s voracious
appetite for small insects.
70–200mm VR zoom lens at 200mm, 2X teleconverter
(400mm), 1/80 of a second at f/5.6 and ISO 100, hand-held.
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