Stalking Zippy for a Blip

Setting the scene:
12:30
Placemats, giant lemonade, bowl of sliced apples, chair strategically placed at about 45 degrees from sun.  Sitting in patio chair with camera strapped around neck. 55-150 mm lens with a polarized filter attached.

Plan: Stalk Zippy (or any other hummer) until I'm happy with several shots, with wing movement or hovering.

What Happened:
12:45
Sun behind clouds, background cloudy.
Filter light.
Zippy high in ocotillo (to my right). I am looking through my camera with right eye , focused on the feeder, finger half way down pressed on shutter.

13:00
Still waiting for Zippy to land.  Still focused on feeder w/o moving, sneaking an apple slice or two into my mouth w/o looking at the bowl. The sun comes out (adjust filter).  "Okay Zippy, now's the time. I want you in the sun.  Please come now, you little bugger!"

13:04
Zippy soars in while I'm chewing. Dang, blurry pic.

13:05 
Sun dips behind the clouds.
Lighten filter due to background.
Focused again.  Finger ready. Right eye through view finder. Zip on ocotillo. Flies away.  One minute later, he zips in.  I get two focused shots of him sitting on the feeder. Boring!

13:10-13:30
Sunny.
Filter has been adjusted re ...
Waiting, focused on and off, eating apples and sipping lemonade.  No sign of Zippy.

13:35
Sunny.
Focused and still.This time looking through view finder with left eye focused on feeder and right eye focused on the Zipper perched in his usual place - high in ocotillo.  Suddenly he makes a break for the feeder. Son of a gun!  He flies in to front of it.  I get shots of his back.

13:37-14:10 
Sun in and out.
Filter continually adjusted for sky conditions and background.
This waiting and flying into the front of the feeder game continues to be repeated. I get shots of his back as he soars, hovers and sits because he comes in blocking my view to him.

14:20
Usually cloudy when he appears but occasionally, his timing is better.
Starting to get hang of timing him from ocotillo to feeder but getting shots out of frame, not in time or not in focus.

14:30
Zippy appears about every 9-12 minutes.  I have finally timed him.  I take the camera down and rest for a few after a sighting but then get back into position and put finger cocked on shutter (using battery, of course).

Zippy is such a tease!  Every now and then he appears from the ocotillo in the distance, as if out of nowhere and I am not ready.  I then have to wait another  9-12 minutes!

15:15
I've gotten hot.  Should have put on shorts. Apples are long gone, as is lemonade. But, I've now gotten a couple of shots in focus with his wings in motion.  Part of what I wanted to do. 

Holding out hope for a  hover.  Costa's hummer's rarely hover.  They soar.

15:45
Sun is out and clouds have moved from behind frame.

Right eye on Zippy, left eye on feeder.  He takes off headed for the feeder.  In that split second I track him and snap like hell.   I get four shots off before he lands in less than a second.  Two of the sky.  One half in the frame and one perfectly framed.

16:00
Last attempt.  Zippy has approached from the right all afternoon. Inexplicably, he zips in from the left, as if to tell me it's time to go inside.
I do.

Footnote:  I am very pleased with in love with this shot.  He is not perched.  He is not hovering.  He is actually in flight...and he  is beautiful!


You won't be disappointed with a look in large (okay, just humor me!)   xx