Really tough subject!

[ebiggs1]

Shooting hummingbirds as I usually do with a twist.  This time a couple females decided they were not going to share their sugar water with a persistent wasp. Sorry they are not real sharp but catching the bug in the frame with a 600mm lens is quite difficult. Plus with no notice this is what I would be shooting I feel lucky I got anything at all.

All shots with a EOS 1D Mk IV and Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens.  All were at 600mm, f8, SS 1/5000 and ISO 800.  All hand held.  Who says you can't hand hold the S lens?  Lens correction and cropped in Lightroom 6.

[ScottyP]

Kind of like a teeny tiny, aerial version of lions fighting off hyenas at an antelope carcass. 

[RobertTheFat]

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@ScottyP wrote:

Kind of like a teeny tiny, aerial version of lions fighting off hyenas at an antelope carcass. 

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Yeah, if the birds had let the wasp at the water, he'd have soon come back with a dozen thirsty friends.

[Waddizzle]

" ...  Sorry they are not real sharp but catching the bug in the frame with a 600mm lens is quite difficult. ...."

No doubt it was difficult frame it.  I would have used continuous shooting mode, and locked focus on the feeder using BBF, and left it there.  Yup, spray and pray.  The first two shots seeem to have the wasp outside of the DOF.  It's behind it, that's all.  The last shot seems to capture the wasp in focus, because it is within the DOF.

I have said it before, but it bears repeatting.  Consistent luck is more properly known as SKILL.

[ebiggs1]

You just about missed the entire episode.  But you are free to try it in your own way.  It was not a set-up issue.  They were there and so was I.  Neither expecting the other. I just wanted to shoot the hummers. It is what it is.

"No doubt it was difficult frame it."

One Shot, single, no heroic settings and only 12 shots were taken. Hand held. No, "spray and pray".

"Consistent luck is more properly improperly known as SKILL."

[Waddizzle]

""Consistent luck is more properly improperly known as SKILL.""

Not in my experience.  I suppose the guy who can throw a horseshoe ringer most of the time is just very lucky.

[ebiggs1]

You might say the more skillful you are the luckier you become.  But never the other way around.

I had a student that did a music competition for state rating.  He summed it up, correctly I might add, "State is a lot of luck but it seems the more I practice the luckier I become."  Wise kid!  

[diverhank]

It's really tough to keep both the hummer and the wasp in focus...for sure.  In the many hummer pictures I have, I only managed one that had both in reasonable focus (more on the bee, though). 5DIII, 400 f/5.6L ; f/5.6; 1/800; ISO 16000

[ebiggs1]

Does the hummer know the Bee is there?  They were fighting over the sugar water  with mine!

[diverhank]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Does the hummer know the Bee is there?  They were fighting over the sugar water  with mine!

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They do fight often but I never managed to capture them fighting on pictures 🙂