Macro Photo Competition 2013 No 1 : Entry Number 322

A beautiful photo, really not easy to do, the focus is very good, the colors are beautiful, I love.

Thank you for the Mark of Excellence honor. I took this photo in my backyard in Petaluma, CA, after many days of careful and patient observation of several resident Anna's Hummingbirds that were actively feeding on several of the flowers. I set up feeders among the plants and covered the tubes with flowers, and gradually got closer to them with the goal of capturing a full frame portrait with my Sigma 70mm macro lens and Nikon D7000. I got close, but not close enough so I set up the camera on a tripod about a foot away from the feeding area and used a remote trigger to snag this shot, using a fully manual exposure based on much experimentation. I hope you enjoy the image as much as I did taking it.