If you came here hoping to see beautiful sharp shots of a hummingbird with the perfect pose, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you. You will find no shots like that here. This post is more of a public service to warn people of the true evil nature of these fast little devils that so many people think are "cute."
About 2 years ago when we moved into our new apartment in Santa Clara, CA I was delighted to find that there were hummingbirds that frequented the apartment complex. Within a week of moving in we purchased a feeder that we hung from on the balcony. Literally minutes after putting it up a hummingbird came to it. I was ecstatic. In my mind I was already picturing all the great photos I was going to be able to get of these birds.
Two years later, I'm still trying to get the perfect shot. Partly to blame is the setup I have. Our balcony faces to the east, and I usually don't have a lot of time to try and get photos of it until the evening time. As you can see here, our balcony is pretty well shaded by this time of day, but the sky is still bright, making for a difficult back lighting situation.
This back lighting situation results in lots of silhouettes with blown out background spots like this. I can't tell you how many similar shots I have to this one.
If I try to meter for the sky/background, I can get a nice looking silhouette like this one, which can make for an interesting photo, but not really what I'm going for. Too bad the feeder is in this shot because I rather like this silhouette otherwise.
Now I know I can't blame this difficult lighting situation on the birds themselves. However, I am convinced that they purposely take advantage of this situation! The times I've been able to try and get some shots at another time of day, they won't come anywhere near me when I have a camera in my hand! I sit on the balcony with my camera they don't stay around long enough to get them in my sights, much less get the focus sharp on the eye. I go back inside and set the camera in its case, and they come back.
The latest behavior of these birds is what truly convinced me of their evil nature. While sitting on the couch watching TV with the balcony door open, they will actually approach right up to the screen and chirp at me! I tried to setup a camera with a remote release to capture evidence of this latest behavior, but they somehow knew the camera was there and did not approach the screen. The closest I got to documenting this behavior is below.
Another tactic of these birds is to use the bird feeder to their advantage. I've tried again and again to get shots of them as they hover a few feet from the feeder, hoping to avoid the artificial look. They just won't stay still there, though. And when they land on the feeder, it is usually in a way to place the feeder between them and me, such as in this photo here. This photo would be great if not for the feeder. If he had just stayed in the air 1 second longer I could have had a great exposure on him. This shot was hand held while sitting on a chair on the balcony using my high-speed sync flash for some fill.
One day, I even setup my camera on the balcony with a remote release and a flash. I used manual focus to focus on a spot a bit away from the feeder where they would usually hover. I zoomed out a bit just to have a wider field of view. Here's a composite of 3 of those shots demonstrating the antics of this demonic acrobat as she flitted around. Every time the flash would go off, it would fly off and come back again.
I placed a couple of sticks on the balcony hoping to lure it into perching on a more natural looking location before going to the feeder. Unfortunately, they haven't taken to using them yet that I've seen. Instead, they prefer to first perch in the distant trees where my 300mm zoom isn't powerful enough to reach them.
This past weekend while sitting out on the balcony I almost caught a picture I thought I could be proud of. I had one in my sights, away from the feeder, well lit by the mid-morning sun, and he hovered right in the focal plane I had pre-focused to. I pressed the shutter release and to my horror nothing happened! I frantically pressed it several more times, with the hummer hovering in that location the whole time. My battery was dead, and somehow I think he KNEW THAT!
Another tactic I've tried to get a good shot of one of these birds is to plant some flowers known to attract them in a potter. So far they have ignored every type of flower we've tried except for some Spanish Lavender. I've managed to spot them milking these flowers on a couple of occasions, but of course it was never when I had a camera with me.
In the last couple of years I think I've only gotten one or two photos I'm happy with, and even those had their faults. One of them is this one here that I just managed to get this weekend. If it had a bit more DoF, and a bit of fill flash to get rid of the shadows, I think it might have been a lot better.
So you may ask, if they torment me so badly, will I ever stop trying to get a hummingbird shot that I am truly happy with? Never!! I think the hummer knows that as he sits where light is poorest and taunts me with his diabolical chirping. Evil spawn of Satan!!
About 2 years ago when we moved into our new apartment in Santa Clara, CA I was delighted to find that there were hummingbirds that frequented the apartment complex. Within a week of moving in we purchased a feeder that we hung from on the balcony. Literally minutes after putting it up a hummingbird came to it. I was ecstatic. In my mind I was already picturing all the great photos I was going to be able to get of these birds.
Two years later, I'm still trying to get the perfect shot. Partly to blame is the setup I have. Our balcony faces to the east, and I usually don't have a lot of time to try and get photos of it until the evening time. As you can see here, our balcony is pretty well shaded by this time of day, but the sky is still bright, making for a difficult back lighting situation.
This back lighting situation results in lots of silhouettes with blown out background spots like this. I can't tell you how many similar shots I have to this one.
If I try to meter for the sky/background, I can get a nice looking silhouette like this one, which can make for an interesting photo, but not really what I'm going for. Too bad the feeder is in this shot because I rather like this silhouette otherwise.
Now I know I can't blame this difficult lighting situation on the birds themselves. However, I am convinced that they purposely take advantage of this situation! The times I've been able to try and get some shots at another time of day, they won't come anywhere near me when I have a camera in my hand! I sit on the balcony with my camera they don't stay around long enough to get them in my sights, much less get the focus sharp on the eye. I go back inside and set the camera in its case, and they come back.
The latest behavior of these birds is what truly convinced me of their evil nature. While sitting on the couch watching TV with the balcony door open, they will actually approach right up to the screen and chirp at me! I tried to setup a camera with a remote release to capture evidence of this latest behavior, but they somehow knew the camera was there and did not approach the screen. The closest I got to documenting this behavior is below.
Another tactic of these birds is to use the bird feeder to their advantage. I've tried again and again to get shots of them as they hover a few feet from the feeder, hoping to avoid the artificial look. They just won't stay still there, though. And when they land on the feeder, it is usually in a way to place the feeder between them and me, such as in this photo here. This photo would be great if not for the feeder. If he had just stayed in the air 1 second longer I could have had a great exposure on him. This shot was hand held while sitting on a chair on the balcony using my high-speed sync flash for some fill.
One day, I even setup my camera on the balcony with a remote release and a flash. I used manual focus to focus on a spot a bit away from the feeder where they would usually hover. I zoomed out a bit just to have a wider field of view. Here's a composite of 3 of those shots demonstrating the antics of this demonic acrobat as she flitted around. Every time the flash would go off, it would fly off and come back again.
I placed a couple of sticks on the balcony hoping to lure it into perching on a more natural looking location before going to the feeder. Unfortunately, they haven't taken to using them yet that I've seen. Instead, they prefer to first perch in the distant trees where my 300mm zoom isn't powerful enough to reach them.
This past weekend while sitting out on the balcony I almost caught a picture I thought I could be proud of. I had one in my sights, away from the feeder, well lit by the mid-morning sun, and he hovered right in the focal plane I had pre-focused to. I pressed the shutter release and to my horror nothing happened! I frantically pressed it several more times, with the hummer hovering in that location the whole time. My battery was dead, and somehow I think he KNEW THAT!
Another tactic I've tried to get a good shot of one of these birds is to plant some flowers known to attract them in a potter. So far they have ignored every type of flower we've tried except for some Spanish Lavender. I've managed to spot them milking these flowers on a couple of occasions, but of course it was never when I had a camera with me.
In the last couple of years I think I've only gotten one or two photos I'm happy with, and even those had their faults. One of them is this one here that I just managed to get this weekend. If it had a bit more DoF, and a bit of fill flash to get rid of the shadows, I think it might have been a lot better.
So you may ask, if they torment me so badly, will I ever stop trying to get a hummingbird shot that I am truly happy with? Never!! I think the hummer knows that as he sits where light is poorest and taunts me with his diabolical chirping. Evil spawn of Satan!!