HUMMINGBIRDS by JBC

HUMMINGBIRDS

The Aviary

JBC Photography

Anna's Hummingbird
Female

4/24/05
What can I say, everybody loves hummingbirds. I sure do. Hard to photograph though. So fast, and there's that flying backwards thing they can do. I always have a few in my backyard that I manage to capture on 'film' (I only do digital these days) and some of them can be seen on the links below. I don't have any fancy strobe equipment that I can set up at a known feeding place and with motion sensor stuff to trigger the strobe and camera. That's how they get those pictures that freeze the wings. With natural light and my hands to hold the camera, I have to use a wide aperture to get the fastest possible shutter speed, but then I get the smallest depth of field, so the wings would be somewhat out of focus even if I did get a 1/400 or faster shutter speed. I just go for the eyes and composition best I can.

Most of my photographs have come from outdoors. I have a few that were taken at the San Diego Zoo in their butterfly and hummingbird house. My favorite one was at the old Fresnel lens for the Piedras Blancas lighthouse which is in a little memorial park along Main Street in Cambria, Ca. The photo above was taken at the San Francisco Zoo last weekend. I believe it is an Anna's Hummingbird from looking in my ID books and on the Internet.

Here's an informative and interesting article on California hummingbirds:
Why Do Our Hummingbirds Hum

And here's some of my photos:
( I think most of them are Anna's )