Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: hummingbird

2 pictures in notes above! :) A few days ago I was out taking pictures of flowers in my little garden when a hummingbird flew up and sipped nectar from the allium blossoms. I had no chance of taking a picture but hoped that at some point I might get lucky. This morning I was taking pictures of a white poppy when...ZOOM!!! In comes the hummingbird, flitting from allium to poppy flowers, and then up and away. Not enough time to aim, but I stopped what I was doing and hoped and waited patiently for it to return. Then, to my delight, down it flew and hovered in front of one of my gladiolus flowers! It was close enough to get pictures and I was READY!! I managed to get about twenty pictures, and these three were my favorites! I am so excited because these are the first pictures I've ever taken of a hummingbird away from a feeder!!! HOORAY!!! Francis de Sales, C.O., T.O.M., A.O.F.M. Cap. (French: François de Sales) (21 August 1567 – 28 December 1622) was a Bishop of Geneva and is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation. He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God. Wikipedia: Francis de Sales Explored on July 21, 2013. Highest position, page 1 (#25).

2 more pictures above ! :) This morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw this adorable hummingbird sitting on a branch. I think they are so darn cute when they are sitting still, and I watched in joy while it turned its head this way and that. When it didn't fly away, I thought, "Oh...I'll try..." and I zoomed to get my camera, returning to find it still sitting happily! I took pictures through the window, but when it kept sitting there, I thought, "I wonder if I could open the back door and get a little bit better angle?" I tried...and this darling little bird watched me slowly creep over without fear. I managed to get this picture and several others before it flew off, returning an instant later for a sip of nectar from the hummingbird feeder before really flying off! :) Yay for adorable hummingbirds!!! :D (I am pretty sure this is an Anna's Hummingbird. Its throat feathers are red when the sun hit them, but its back was facing the sun so I wasn't able to get those gorgeous, gleaming feathers to light up for the camera.) Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and was authorized at the federal level by presidential proclamation by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, her 100th birthday. Wikipedia: Helen Keller Explored on November 6, 2013. Highest placement, page 4.

1 picture above in a note! :) (To learn why the blue is different in each picture, see the next image!) Every morning I water the tomato plants on our upstairs deck and when I go out there, I also bring Pumpkin in her cage so she can enjoy the sunshine and look at the scenery while she whistles, laughes, and munches on some breakfast. Also, one of her most important jobs is supervising Mom to make sure I do a good job! :) She's a real task master but I don't mind! :D Two days ago I was out there and I saw a moth flutter away from the plant I was watering. I saw it fly again and land below the railing. Taking a closer look, I realized it was a pair of mating Silver-Spotted Skippers! I ran downstairs to get my camera and thankfully they were still there when I returned. When I bent down to begin taking pictures, I heard the twitter of a hummingbird, and the whiz of its wings. Peering up through the tomato plant I was under, I saw a darling hummingbird sitting primly on top of one of the sticks we use to tie up the tomato branches. Turning very slowly, I leaned around the tomato plant and managed to get several dozen pictures!! Unfortunately the sun is behind it, so I had to do a lot of work to correct the exposure, but I think that both of the pictures I chose to process turned out nice enough to share! :) Incidentally, the reason I was able to correct this image so well is because I use the RAW image format when I take pictures. If your camera allows you to use RAW, do yourself the favor of using this format. Each file is much larger than a jpeg because the file stores all of the data of an image, not just a portion. Because of this, the quality of your images will be much better with more colors and details. If you'd like to know more about the benefits of using RAW image format, here's are a couple of links for you! :) Wikipedia: Raw Image Format Digital Photography School: RAW .vs JPEG

1 picture above in a note! :) Here's another darling image of this adorable youngster. There are at least 6-10 who visit us all day long. Probably parents and two clutches of babies. They are really fun to watch as they argue about who gets to be at the hummingbird feeder...even though there are six "seats", they don't want to share! :D By the way, if you compare these two hummingbird images, you'll notice a difference in the coloring. The reason why is that on this picture, I specifically metered the exposure so that it correctly exposed the hummingbird. However, that caused the sky to totally blow out to white. Once I got my picture into photoshop, I selected the hummingbird, placed it and the post on another layer, and properly exposed the sky...presto, it turned a pretty blue again. I also worked on correcting the exposure on the bird and added a bit of saturation, since it has the sun behind it. In the first picture (see the inset note), I focused on the bird but didn't do anything to meter the image. The result was a very dark bird with the sky as you see it. This is a good example of what you can expect if you use exposure metering on a specific spot in your picture!

2 more pictures in notes above and a silly text note too! :) This quote really fits because today I'm stretching out of my comfort zone: I made a post on Flickr to say that I will no longer be uploading pictures and will be deleting all but my last two pictures in a few days. Ouch...not an easy thing to do!!! Leslie C. "Les" Brown (born February 17, 1945) is a motivational speaker, former Ohio politician, popular author, radio DJ, and former host of The Les Brown Show. As a politician, he is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives.[1] As a motivational speaker, he uses the catch phrase, "It's possible," and teaches people to follow their dreams as he learned to do. Wikipedia: Leslie C. "Les" Brown Explored on July 31, 2013. Highest placement: page 2 (#38).