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Hummingbirds have always fascinated me and when I began serious wildlife photography I spent hours “practicing” on my backyard birds, especially the hummingbirds. I figured that if I could photograph a bird that has wings that beat 80 times a second AND can fly backwards I could photograph most things. Not so fast bucko…

Looking at what the “pros” were doing with 3 or 4 high-speed flashes, backgrounds and a huge amount of other gear was quite intimidating. I didn’t have the budget for several thousand dollars of gear to make these crazy setups. Since I could not afford that gear and after all I was a photographer not a Rube Goldberg type inventor. And since my images really were not very good in comparison to the pros, I just assumed you had to have all that gear and do it that way and I abandoned trying to photograph hummingbirds for several years.

Observation has always been a key to improving my wildlife photography. This means watching bird behavior and learning what makes them tick. It has enabled me to take far better photographs than when I was just out running around chasing the birds. My moment of clarity came when I was with a friend and watched the hummingbirds feed from a feeder that was still in his hand! Hmm, these guys don’t really care about much except that sweet nectar in the feeder. DING DING DING went the bells in my little brain…

Ok, the feeder is no problem, cheap and easy. So now I started banging away on the hummingbirds at the feeder. This worked out well, but I don’t like the feeder in the image and yes I can do some photoshop tricks and make it go away, but that can be a pain and I try to avoid that kind of manipulation.

I’m having a blast literally blasting away taking lots of “great” images, but there is still something lacking. Now that the feeder is gone there is no context in the image. The hummingbird is good (because it is in focus and has a nice pose), the background is awesome (because there is nothing in it) and the light is good (because it is behind me) so why be sad? Well it doesn’t tell me why the hummingbird is there and that hurts my head. My little brain is trying to add something to the image to help it make sense for me. So now what do I do?

I had to add context. I needed something natural, pretty, and useful that would help my photographs pop! I was in Colorado and the hummingbirds were quite active on my friend’s feeders and I had seen (remember that observation thing) hummingbirds occasionally dip for a sip on some cinquefoil growing in the garden. DING DING DING went my bells again and I attached a bit of cinquefoil to the hummingbird feeder. It looked good, hummingbirds liked it and it was a natural perch and food source…perfect.

Now to photograph! I aligned myself with the sun behind me for a great light source, I had the perch in a place that gave me a great background and I set my camera up at eye level with the perch. That’s it! No flash, no backdrops, no fuss no muss hummingbird photography.  I didn’t need a flash because I had plenty of natural light to freeze or mostly freeze the birds in flight. I like a bit of blur in the wings as it seems more natural. How many times have you seen a hummingbird fly and seen the wings clearly…umm never. You’ll need bright light and a shutter speed of 1/1200 or more to get crispy sharp shots.

Now I was set and all I had to do was wait! It really didn’t take long and with full disclosure in mind, I was actually sitting in a chair with a glass of wine. I didn’t think about writing this until after the fact or I would have taken a picture of me hard at “work”.  Hey it worked!

A quick story: my dear friend Claire was very supportive of all of this hoopla around her bird feeders. She was also a tad skeptical about this rigging of feeders. She was going to the big box store and asked if I needed anything and I replied, “yes potted plants”. Her eyes really rolled back at that one!  Off we went to the store and I bought a ragged foxglove for $3, brought it home and put it on a table under the feeder. Got my chair and my camera and within 15 minutes had this one… Claire actually BOUGHT a print for her house!

Of course you don’t always get what you want! And this brings up a lesson learned. You don’t want to give the birds a choice that will give them the chance to perch where you cannot photograph them. In other words it is best to put out one perch and make sure that when they use it, you can shoot it. Hummingbirds have the largest brain to body size ratio in the bird world, best not to let them out think you. A similar trick is to actually use some tape to close the extra feeder openings on the feeder. This will force them to your spot. This is very important when you have a few hummingbirds; it’s not necessary when you have a big number of birds on the feeder.

Don’t let the big rigs and complex technology stop you. You can do this with a relatively small (200mm) lens, a tripod and some patience! Have fun experiment with your perches finding something your birds like. When all it takes is time and a few dollars worth of stuff there is no reason for you not to start making some incredible hummingbird images.  You never know what you might catch…

Here are all of the images that I made in Colorado using this technique…

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I’ve used variations on this technique for hummingbird photography in the past and you can see all of my hummingbird images…HERE.

One of the techniques that you can use to make a successful flight shot is to observe behavior and then take advantage of that behavior. Many birds and flycatchers in particular have favorite perches that they use to “hawk” bugs and other edibles. Once you figure out that spot you can then make a plan to capture their return. I say capture their return because the take off is more of a leap and far less dramatic than a landing. So now you’ve watched and learned the bird’s favorite perch. I am also assuming you have moved if need be so that you have the best possible background… Now the next technique to photograph this gorgeous Vermilion Flycatcher in flight (photographed in a blind at Block Creek Natural Area) was to pre-focus on the perch and lock in my tripod. I’ve also locked in the focus on the spot that I expect the bird will return to. Now I watched the birds return directly rather than through the view finder of the camera. This gave me a lot better chance at grabbing the ultra-fast flight action. Of course there are going to be misses…sigh

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It really only takes one though!

Here are a few more images of the Vermilion Flycatchers from Block Creek. I highly recommend photographing at Block Creek Natural Area.

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I highly recommend photographing at Block Creek Natural Area. The map shows the location, but the location is on private property and can be visited only with a reservation.

While I was on my last photography workshop for PAW, we were photographing the cowboys rounding up a herd of longhorn cattle. It really was amazing to watch and photograph, I’ll have several more series of images from that session online soon.

Anyway, while the cattle were walking along a small dam this gal just got all excited and started prancing and jumping, fortunately, I was watching and kept my finger on the shutter release! I could not believe she got airborne and I could not imagine the amount of cow slobber flying on the air for soooo long. Then when I started to write this I looked at the time stamps and the entire sequence took 3 seconds! No wonder the cow spit flew for what seemed like forever. The photography lesson – keep watching and keep your finger on the shutter during these controlled, but unpredictable photo workshops!

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The map will give you an idea about where our shoot was located. The land is not normally open to the public and is private property.

The nest building is ongoing and so there were plenty of opportunities to get some behavioral shots, which are almost always more interesting. During this mating season it is the guys job to look good and bring home some food. The lady of the house does all of the nest building and incubation. It was fun to capture him bringing her a spider and she was a bit unwilling to drop her load of grass for their nest. He finally gave her the spider and she took it all in the nest. Since the process was sort of slow I was able to move the focus point and select which bird was in focus. If I had opened up a few stops to get both in focus, I would have lost the creamy dreamy background… Thinking about what I was photographing let me make better images.

Lastly, with so many available images I’m more willing to make unusual crops, like the vertical panorama.

You can bet, I’ll be thinking of what else I can do with my friendly neighborhood bluebirds next time. Stay tuned.

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House Sparrow and Pansys

One of the my secret locations to photograph is Busch Gardens in Tampa. I do occasionally shoot their captive wildlife, but it is usually the freeloading birds that get caught in my lens. With all of the free food available throughout the park there hundreds of potential subjects. You just have to keep working to get the right backgrounds!

The House Sparrow has to be one of the most drab birds ever, but when you get a shockingly pretty background, well they aren’t quite so boring.

My favorite haunt is shooting at the hippo pool. Being able to press my lens flat to the glass and waiting for the birds to swim by you gives you incredible in your face “eyeball to eyeball” shots without the wet suit. Imagine my delight when I found that a pair of Mottle Ducks had hatched quite the raft of ducklings!

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Cardinal in the winter

While I was at my mom’s house for Christmas, I took advantage of the her bird feeder. I shot these images through the kitchen window and was toasty warm all the while! The trick to success is to keep the lens parallel to the glass. Fortunately, her bird feeder is at just such an angle.

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From time to time you will find posts about ways to improve your photography. Here is the first one. It was inspired by a recent encounter with a Sandhill Crane.

I usually associate these birds with winter and the fall migration in New Mexico, but we do have a population of them here in Florida. The other day it was kind of a sunny day and the light was from the side. I compensated for the inevitable shadow with a high ISO. ISO1600 to be exact, on my trusty Nikon D300. While I didn’t eliminate the shadow, it is acceptable. Withou resorting to a flash I used the high ISO to prevent the left of the head from being completely black.

The second “trick” to this picture is have as much depth of field as possible in order to keep that long bill and the eyes in focus. You MUST get the eyes in focus, so get your focus lock on an eye and then adjust depth of field for the bill.

The last trick to the shot was getting the background “clean” and clear of stuff. There was a light tower in the background and by moving just a few inches it was gone and I had this creamy background.

The last was waiting for the Sandhill to stop eating and take a look in my direction!

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