Hummingbird photography advice locations, technical advice

[chris_alcock]

I am interested in shooting hummingbirds this spring and summer, and would

like experienced hummer shooters advice. What aperture would you shoot at to

get a clear photo of the hummer? 5.6? 2.8? providing good light. Where

would you go to shoot hummers. I am in the suburbs of Chicago, and am going

to try to lure them to my yard with feeders, flowers, etc, but are there

locations I can go to shoot them? thanks.

[mark u]

http://www.moosepeterson.com/phototips/hummingbirds.html

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

Hi,

 

For where to go to shoot them? Try the highlands of Ecuador. There is a fairly inexpensive lodge just outside of Quito (built in R. Buckminister Fuller style) where they hand sugar feeders outside of every room. You can sit on your balcony and have hummers a few feet (sometimes inches) away, all day. There are probably 25 species that visit the feeders. To find that lodge (apologies - name is forgotten to me), get a Lonely Planet or Footprint or Rough Guide travel guide book, and browse a bit.

 

That being said, to stop hummingbird wings (for focus) is almost impossible. Then again, if you like to visually suggest movement, the blur is great.

 

Regards,

 

rdc/nyc

[mark_chappell]

In Panama last spring I photographed some hummingbirds at local feeders using a ~ 300 mm

lens, extension tube, and flash set to high-speed synch mode. Dark, gloomy shadows in the

backgrounds were avoided by shooting the birds against bright skies or foliage, far enough

away that it was out of focus and softly blurred. It worked pretty well but the birds were

pretty accommodating: I was about 1.5 meters from them. For some more details look at

the hummingbirds on <A HREF="http://faculty.ucr.edu/~chappell/INW/

MACphotosPanama.html">this page</a>.

[stemked]

I'm down in Indy and can get them pretty easily here; no problem when I lived in Minnesota either. provided you are intrested in only Ruby Throated.

 

In the US there is only one common species generally in the East. Desert trips to Big bend in Texas or various areas in California will get you three or more species. I was amazed at how abundant they were in Colorado (Broad-Tailed?)

 

Naturally heading further south you will get a lot more species; south meaning Central/South America. I've seen several species in Belize for example.

 

Perasonally I shoot Pentax so I use snap-focus and either a 100mm or 200mm manual macro lens on an autofocus body. I simply setup where I think they will be, pre-focus, lock the shutter and let the hummingbirds take their own photos. Occasionally I use long air-bulb release cords which has the advantage that they don't have to be exactly in the middle to get a nice image.

 

Of course at 1/125th a second (flash) their wings look like a blur (which is the best I can manage), C'est la vie! Watch your backgrounds very carfully when you setup; it's very helpful to have a second flash to light up your backgound.

[mlr8081]

The best way to learn and get great images at the same time is to attend a workshop. Check out Joe McDonald's website www.hoothollow.com and look at his hummingbird workshops in Madera canyon in Arizona in the spring. I attended last year. It was great fun, a relaxing vacation and I got great images without a huge learning curve. The secret is the flash set up. Using multiple slave flashes triggered by your flash unit set at low power and a very small apeture f22-32 to eliminate ambient light, and a moderate telephoto such as a 100-400 or 20-200 +1.4TC it is easy to get ultra sharp wing stopping shots like the one I have included.

 

Mike Robinson<div></div>

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

Hi Michael,

 

Wonderful...the hummer has multiple catch lights in its eye so I can only guess how many flash units you had set up. The highlights on the feathers are also tough to deal with as well...some will like that "high key" effect, and others not. I like it (but I like black backgrounds too).

 

Regards from NYC,

 

rdc

[greg s]

"For where to go to shoot them? Try the highlands of Ecuador."

 

Bella Vista Lodge & Tandayapa Lodge : both are very safe for roaming around and the hummingbirds are incredible. BV has a fantastic trail system + the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan

 

http://www.bellavistacloudforest.com/

 

http://www.tandayapa.com/

[diy photography]

Look around on the web. there are plenty of tutorials. I use four to six flashes in my set up.

Usually two on the hummongbird and two on the background.

Good luck and God's light to you

 

Chris<div></div>

[SCL]

Agua Calientes (the town outside the ruins at Macchu Piccu)in Peru. There is a government owned tropical forest on the edge of town. You need to get a pass from the hotel which leases the property but over 50 species of hummingbirds are all over the property and the feeders are literally busy most of the day. I've never seen so many hummingbirds in my life. There are daily tours with trained, english speaking, biologists as well - which are free if you are a hotel guest. The best one can do, because of the forest cover, is to use a strobe flash. I tried to catch them in flits of sunlight and had much better success with flash, which doesn't seem to bother them at all.

[chansonbleu]

Hi Chris,

 

There is a Hummingbird aviary at the Saguaro Desert Museum outside of Tucson Az. Its a very natural looking setting, and a good place to practice.

 

 

Steve

[arthuryeo]

Yes, buy a feeder and do your part (clean it and refill, at least, once a week) and they'll come. Some don't even wanna leave in the winter ...

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JUd2&tag=

[earl_harrison2]

Beatty's Miller Canyon Guest Ranch in Hereford, AZ is a great place to photograph hummingbirds. You can rent an inexpensive cabin and have great photo opportunities right at your door. I have a gallery of photos taken there in 2004 on www.pbase.com/earlharrison if you want to see some examples.

[sfcole]

Chris,

This is the first decent photo I've managed to get so far. I live in southern Oregon and a few

hummingbirds live here year round. I have a feeder right outside my window so I set up the

camera and prefocused on manual, and taped off 3 of the 4 feeding stations to "encourage"

the bird to select one. I tripped the camera with a remote infrared controller. This was taken

wide open, but next time I'm going to try stopping down. On-camera flash was used--not

great, but it's a start for me.

Scott<div></div>

[mack_hicks]

The Moose Peterson link about is great. So is the one at rpphoto.com. I thought they had left for Mexico, but I have an immature male that was attracted to my wife's nature flowers before they froze. He is now visiting a feeder we put back up. I use multiple flashes on light stands. See the rpphoto site for more details. So far, I have been using two off camera and sometimes the on camera flash. Takes a fair amount of patience. Good luck.