Snappy Pictures

We have a hummingbird feeder at our cottage. We are inexplicably greatly entertained by the little creatures. I have seen pictures with a number of hummingbirds feeding at the same feeder, but the birds in our neck of the woods will have none of that. It is a constant battle for supremacy of the feeder whenever it is out and filled.

I have taken dozens if not hundreds of shots of the hummingbirds standing on the rail of the feeder in various poses, but a few weeks back, as an experiment, I set out to see if I could capture the hummingbirds in flight. We had been on vacation the entire week and the birds had gotten quite accustomed to our presence, so I was able to stand within 4 feet or so with the camera mounted on a monopod and they would still come confidently (or as confidently as hummingbirds do anything) to the feeder.

The birds would come to the feeder but they were so quick that I had to be pretty sharp to get them either coming or going. I spent quite a while snapping away and I got a few pretty good shots. That was Saturday.

On Sunday, I figured out a trick (or a dirty trick, I suspect the hummingbirds would say), and I removed the standing rail from the feeder. Now every time they came to feed, they would have to hover while drinking. This worked out much better, although the day clouded over and the shooting window was short. Here is one of the better shots I got. For the photo nerds, this was taken using a 50mm lens at F2.0 and 1/1600 of a second with the camera set to ISO 200.



I'll probably post more hummingbird photos in the future, but for now that's it.

Don