A Virtual Trip to Costa Rica
Last night we were in the audience as the Quad Cities Photography Club hosted a program by Greg Basco, Deep Green Photography, Costa Rica. It was good seeing Greg again. We were part of a group of photographers who visited Costa Rica in June 2010. Greg was one of the leaders. He made it possible for us to photograph a variety of hummingbirds in several gardens.
This morning we pulled up the Costa Rica images to reminisce about the locations and creatures we photographed. It feels warm looking at the deep green of Costa Rica while the snow falls outside. The storm is moving on.
Greg’s technique for photographing flying hummingbirds was fun to learn. We also enjoyed photographing perched birds like the Green Violet-ear pictured above. The leaf just behind the one on which it is perched was bleached and dry and offered a way to outline and separate it from the natural out of focus background.
If you look closely you will see several raindrops making faint streaks at the 1/80 second shutter speed. The slight shadow beneath its tail reveals that the fill flash exposure compensation should have been dialed a bit lower. Sometimes the action is so exciting that it is easy to forget to check settings from one bird or situation to the next.