A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

Flight Photos
 
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Mimosa Hummer

 Last week we had the pleasure of exploring some beautiful nurseries in Carmel Valley near Monterey. It was a great place to chase hummers.

 
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Hummer in Flight

 She just hovered there for a while. I think she was as interested in checking me out as I was interested in her. She did not seem scared. (It probably did not hurt that there were about 20 other hummingbirds around and I had not eaten any of them yet.) She sat and ate casually after she was done looking at me. I'm glad she stopped though, it made for a much nicer shot.

 
Friday, June 15, 2007

Hovering Hummer

 I have been chasing the hummingbirds around here for the last two weeks. Trying to get them comfortable with me and my camera. Today this one came to me. She decided to have dinner at our backyard feeder. Fortunately this was her second helping, so I had my camera all ready when she showed up.

 
Saturday, June 2, 2007

Armored Bee

 Well my description was not quite as scientific as I usually like... "Big Black Bee!" But it's late and I was not able to track her down. I did have fun taking pictures of her though! Her copper colored wings were reflecting the evening sun beautifully! I was trying to get a shot that really hilted the wings and their amazing structure but this ended up being my favorite.

 
Friday, June 1, 2007

Sunset Dinner Flight

 The hummers have gone wild around here lately. We have three feeders up, but it is a little hard to compete with all the flowers. There are actually three birds that fight over this bush regularly. Even though the bush has plenty to go around.

 
Saturday, February 17, 2007

Egret in Flight

 This image was taken at the same time as the happy seals. The seals were just to the left of this guy. It was a fun day to be out with my camera!

 
Saturday, September 9, 2006

Anna

 We when to a beautiful place in Carpinteria today called Seaside Gardens. Seaside Gardens is a nursery and botanic garden. They had some amazing plants. And it was a hummingbirds' paradise.

One of the things I liked about the Gardens is they had the plants separated by country of origin, both in the sales area and the nicely designed botanic gardens.

So, if you are in the area and you find yourself in need of a Lotus for your Koi pond or anything else remotely exotic just get off the 101 at Exit 88 (Padero Lane or Santa Claus Lane) go toward the mountains and turn right. Seaside Gardens will be on your left.

 
Monday, July 31, 2006

Hovering Bee

 She's been busy! I am surprised she can still fly with all that pollen on her legs.

 
Thursday, July 20, 2006

Serendipity

 It is really interesting to me to see the motion in this shot. The bee is actually leaning into the turn like a bike rider.

I was framing up the shot of the flower when the bee flew in from the left. She made a beautiful arc into the photo and I hit the shutter release as many times as I could!

 
Sunday, May 7, 2006

Costa's Hummingbird

 I like this shadow of this guy on the feeder, nice profile!

 
Saturday, October 8, 2005

Costa's Lunchtime

 This is one of the higher speed shots I have taken of the hummers in the Palm Springs area. I usually take a slower shot that shows more motion in the wings, but it is nice to try a variety of things. The shutter speed was actually not that fast, it was helped out buy the fact that I just happened to hit the shutter at the top of his wing sweep.

This guy has some amazing throat feathers that stick out on the sides.

I get a lot of questions about my hummingbird shots...
  • How fast was the shutter speed?
    Actually, relatively slow. 60th to 250th of a second. And, it is not usually the shutter that freezes the motion of their wings. Normally a high speed strobe is used which can go down to as little as a millionth of a second because it does not depend upon the mechanics of moving a shutter.

    Some commercial shots are even staged with a high speed strobe and camera outfitted with an infrared trigger. The trigger fires the shutter (and the camera fires the strobe) when something breaks the beam in front of the camera. Cool use of technology, but if you depend upon the technology completely you will get a very clinical image that does not look at all life-like.

    I don't use a strobe for two reasons. I think the resulting photos look too clinical and just like any other bird and, I don't have one. :-D
  • You must have an impressive lens, what kind is it?
    Most of my hummers are shot with an average Canon 70-200mm zoom lens. I am just very patient when it comes to watching these guys, I have spent over an hour at times to let them get comfortable with me.
  • Did you use a tripod? Did you set up the shot in advance?
    Nope, with very few exceptions these are handheld shots taken while wandering around where the hummers frequent. I like the freedom to move around and get exactly what I want.


 
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Fly-thru

 There have been some really important people interested in my hummingbirds at the shows lately. :) (see yesterday's post) So I decided to look through some of the images I still have tucked away. This was one of the first ones that jumped out at me.

The one in flight is exactly what I love to capture when I am chasing hummers. His face is sharp and his beak, but you can still see the movement of flight. And, the guy on the feeder looks like he is conducting an orchestra.

Many of the hummingbird shots you see are done with a strobe, a very fast flash. A strobe freezes the action and you do not have to depend upon the speed of the camera's shutter. The best cameras these days reach their limits at around 1/8000th of a second, my AE-1 goes down to 1/1000th. This image was taken between 1/100th and 1/250th of a second. Extremely high speed strobes can go down to a millionth of a second, because they do not depend upon mechanics like shutters.

Unfortunately strobe images come out looking a little clinical for my tastes. But then again, they are all just tools it really depends upon how you use them.

 
Monday, July 18, 2005

Hummers

 The top hummingbird is actually the same bird as in this photo. She was hovering around the feeder for quite a while checking out the strange creature with the 200mm nose.

 
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Hummingbird Tongue

 I like the motion in this photo. I am not particularly fond of the frozen hummingbird photos you see in calendars and other places. They use a fast strobe to freeze all the action and it makes them look like stuffed animals.

This girl was just finished eating. She leapt from the feeder with her tongue still sticking out. They seem to like to lick their beak after eating, they are a lot of fun to watch.

 
Monday, May 23, 2005

Dropin' in for Lunch

 It was a good weekend. It was the 40th anniversary of the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts show. The show is usually only on Sundays, but since it was a special occasion some of the artists were out there on Saturday too.

Unfortunately it was a big weekend for other things in town. A car show and a Volleyball tournament combined with temperatures 13 degrees above made for a slow weekend. The good thing is, I am not just out there for the sales. :-)

I love talking to people about my photography. Hummingbirds in particular seem to bring about great conversations. I have heard wonderful stories about peoples' interactions with these amazing creatures.

Today I talked to a very nice couple visiting from Germany, they had been traveling the coast and seemed to be having a wonderful time. We talked about Big Sur and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park where they had been. And the wonderful hummingbirds they had seen. The man told me how he had just mentioned to his wife how the perfect job would be to travel up and down the California Coast and take pictures of nature and wildlife, and there I was!

So today's photo of the day was his choice. From the selection of Hummingbird prints I had at the beach, this was his favorite.

 
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-Bill Heller

 
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