Crocosmia Blossom
While waiting for hummingbirds, I also photographed the flowers that were attracting them.
The Crocosmia has just started to bloom. The buds and the flowers are both pretty striking, as you can see above.
Photo taken with my medium format setup: Phase One XF camera, 120mm macro lens (but not using the macro feature at this distance). Exposure was ISO 200, 1/500th second, f/6.3.
I deliberately underexposed to retain rich colors. The original is even richer and more detailed, but the web limits the file size and bit depth, so this JPG is the best I can do.
When the hummers showed up, I switch to my Sony α1 camera, which is much faster and responsive—but not as good in terms of color and overall dynamic range. Here’s the last medium format shot, with a hummer at top right. The slower mechanics of the XF camera meant that it was not able to capture both of the hummingbird’s wings (one was moving too fast to be recorded!), and there is a bit of motion blur.
Here is one of the first shots with the 35mm setup (Sony α1, 200-600mm lens):
It also has some issues—the shutter speed was set to low, and there is a problem with motion blur here, too. But I gradually worked out the issues with the Sony. No one camera is perfect for all situations. The Phase One camera’s strength is good data collection; the Sony’s strength is being very response, easy to adjust, and much lighter.