Hummingbird Photography Part 4

Over time my photography techniques and style changes, equipment changes also so I thought I would to a part 4, these can be considered more advanced  and harder techniques.

What I have been trying to do is catch the hummingbirds in the garden at the flowers, there is two ways I do this, one is sit and wait for one to come along and another is use an automatic trigger that the hummingbird trips when it goes to the flower.

Sit and wait technique

Sit and wait technique works well when there are lots of blooming flowers on and around the deck, so I am out there anyways and just have to pick up the camera when one comes by, you do have to crank up the iso for natural light shots like this, I don't worry about the thinner depth of field and wing blur myself but not every one likes it.

Sometimes I will sit out in the blind with one or two off camera flashes pointed at a patch of flowers, iso increased and lens wide open to get enough shutter speed, the 400 2.8 adds nice blur to the background when opened right up.

With all the gardening I have to do trying to attract hummingbirds I don't always have time to sit around taking pictures so what I do is set up my lighting and place a laser trigger for the hummingbird to trip the lights and shutter, works well if there is no wind and the light isn't changing all the time.

For this style I have been trying to get the whole flower stock in the picture, this style doesn't have the wow factor of the close up flight shots but they are a more complete picture, you don't just have a humming bird frozen in space there is no reason  for it being there, the new style that I have been using there is a reason for the bird being there its, feeding on the flowers and you know what it's going to do next it's going to the next flower.

And don't forget about other interests of hummingbirds, gathering nesting material is a good photo op as is perched, find a good perch and place it close to the feeder, if activity gets high one will try to guard the feeder and perch close.

This was taken through the window, very low light, I had to use a remote cord so pushing the shutter didn't blur the picture.

Keep experimenting and use what I have said for a starting point.

You can find more of my hummingbird pictures here.

Martin