Hummingbird with tongue hanging out

Juvenile male Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) tasting the air

Just now I got a nice photo of a hummingbird sticking his tongue out (click bird for larger image). Notice the fine silvery tongue extending beyond the tip of the beak. This photo represents about the limit of image resolution I will be able to acheive with my current optical set-up. I am pretty happy with this resolution. Unfortunately, in this particular shot the companion camera image was out of focus, so there will be no stereoscopic version of this tongue shot forthcoming. (Not that I have yet created any 3D photos good enough to post!)

Today's shoot was my first success at getting decent photos using mirrors. Previously my mirror photos were too blurry and displayed second reflection artifacts. Today I used first surface mirrors mounted more securely. That seems to have done the trick! Now perhaps I will be able to get stereoscopic photos with a smaller interpupilary separation. With today's mirror setup, the separation is about 50 mm, which is still sort of big at this 400 mm distance. I don't know how I can get it smaller though.