Ah, there you have been, Doug! Lovely birds, true diamonds of the forest. And these shades of green and the subdued light convey the rainforest mood very well. That must have been a great trip!
I myself have a Tica-of-German-descent auntie with family living in San José, but haven´t accepted her invitations to visit yet. After school the costs for the flight were so much money I didn´t want to spend (darn, maybe I should have!) and during the last years we haven´t been able to find a period of free time long enough (meaning at least 4 weeks) to go there. And for 1 or 2 weeks it isn´t worth the expenses from over here . But CR is definitely on my list of places to see before you die.
If you have them, show us more photos of Cost Rica, please! How about some landscape pictures over in the favourite places section? ( insert that stolen from Rik sitting-on-hind-legs-front-paws-raised-tongue-out-begging-puppy icon)
--Betty
) One store on the side of the hiway had a deck overlooking a huge waterfall and they also had five hummingbird feeders. It was incredible. I have never seen so many humming birds in one place and so close up. They would perch in a tree right off the deck (about 10" away) So, I brought out my 70-300mm IS lens and got as close as possible. Here are three photos from the shoot. A few things I learned from photographing in the rainforest...bring a tripod and I need to learn how to use my flash. I missed a lot of great shots because I could not hold the camera and macro still with my hands and i did not know how to use my flash to take photos in the dark forest. the birds are very small. The purple one is the largest of the three and it was only about 5" long. So I think these will count as closeup. There is a book on Amazon.com called "Hummingbirds of Costa Rica" (which I Will order soon), it features 44 of the 45 species of hummers that inhabit Costa Rica. (The Plain-capped starthroat, the missing species, lives only in the highest treetops. The authors have never encountered one at a height low enough to photograph.) I will tell you one thing, They do not stay in one place too long 
I suppose 5" would be considered close up. Wonderful colors and details. I am assuming that it was nice to get away from the grind for a while and see something different. A lot of folks are grabbing that late summer vacation time. 
