A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

Hummingbird Photos
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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Iridescent Anna's

 It was a bit of a gray day today. But there was still enough sunlight to show off this guy's beautiful plumage.

 
Saturday, December 22, 2007

Carmel Valley Hummer

 Today we took a nice trip to a nursery in Carmel Valley. It's one of my favorite places to chase humming birds. There are always a bunch of them but there is one in particular that seems to like to play. He keeps buzzing me and then sitting and waiting for me to get almost close enough for the shot I want before taking off again. I'm sure he's having as much fun with me as I am with him. Fortunately, he usually takes pity on the big lumbering beast with the 300 millimeter nose and lets me get a few nice shots.

 
Saturday, September 8, 2007

Fuzzy Contemplation

 Like I've said before, the subject is important but the background can really make or break the image. The pink around the hummingbird is from the flowers (or more technically the bracts) of the Bougainvillea he is resting in. I love the contrast with his beautiful feathers.

This is actually an older shot, it was in my first show. The show was a flower theme, but interspersed in the flowers were small shots of hummingbirds. Seemed fitting to me. :-D

 
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Hummer in the Bush

 It's taken a while but we have built up some nice traffic to our hummingbird feeders in the back yard. Originally I thought our umbrella was blocking their view of potential threats and scaring them away. When we put it down for a while they came closer and started eating at our feeder that is hung the highest. Now that they are more comfortable, the umbrella is back up and they seem to like the seclusion of it. We have two lower feeders that are almost under the umbrella and they are emptied the fastest. I even got scolded today when the lower feeders were empty!

 
Sunday, August 19, 2007

Nappin' in the Golden Hour

 This is my friend from the other day. Like I said he was back in the evening, and the light just kept getting more and more beautiful.

 
Friday, August 17, 2007

After Dinner Nap

 Truth be known it is more of a DURING dinner nap. He was sitting there napping and licking his chops. Then, every so often, he would wake up (almost) then lean over and take a few sips. He let me get very close, but his friend (mom?) was a little excited at one point. I don't think I freaked them out too much though because they came back later in the evening after leaving for a bit to let me clean the feeder and make fresh food. He was watching, because I barely had the feeder back up and he was on it while I was still standing there.

The last time we had a hummer do this he was staking out the back yard to raise a family. I'm not sure it is the right time of year for that, but I'll be watching.

 
Friday, July 27, 2007

Reflective Hummer

 This was at the same nursery as the hummer from the other day. This guy was just being thoughtful in the filtered light. He was watching me intently as I got closer. He did not seem scared. He was more curious I think. He kept tilting his head from side to side. He probably knew the big lumbering beast that was stuck on the ground could never get close enough to bother him.

I love the way the side lighting shows every feather on his face.

 
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.

 
Saturday, July 14, 2007

Beak Cleaning

 Hummers seem to like to clean their beaks after they eat. For that matter, my finch seems to like to do that too.

 
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.

 
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Two Thirty

 I love sun dials. Hopefully someday soon we'll have space for a nice one. Of course I'll probably just fill the space up with more plants. But that's ok too. :-D

 
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.

 
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.

 
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Anna

 We were looking at roses the other day at La Sumida Nursery on Patterson in Goleta. I was minding my own business when I heard this buzzzzz over my head. She was having a great time buzzing the roses and me, but with a little patience I was able to find her resting spot in the top of a Pomegranate tree.

 
Thursday, November 2, 2006

Taking Flight

 The hound loves to explore new territory. I guess she's sniffed all there is to smell at home. Yesterday we got to take a walk along the bluff in Shell Beach, just north of Pismo Beach. Near the end of our walk we heard a bit of chattering from a bush. Upon further examination we found the hiding place of a beautiful hummingbird. Unfortunately the sun was too low in the sky to get a good shot so when we went out for our walk today I checked the bush and sure enough, that must be home for this guy!

I took quite a few shots, this is where he was just about tired of playing with me. He is just starting to take flight. You can see his left wing rising behind his back.

 
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Green Hummer

 She thought she was blending in pretty well, but I saw her fly in.

 
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.

 
Friday, September 1, 2006

Hummer-Hawk

 She looks like she is perched, just waiting for lunch to scurry by. The only problem with that is flowers usually don't scurry.

In reality, she is stretching her neck out and tilting her head back and forth trying to figure out why there is a strange creature with a 300mm nose stalking her.

 
Monday, August 14, 2006

Sleepy Hummer

 Well I did not get my hummingbird feeder this weekend, but at least I got the hummingbird! :-D

 
Sunday, May 7, 2006

Costa's Hummingbird

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

 
Friday, January 27, 2006

Relaxing Hummer

 This is a little guy who had a little too much to eat. He had just finished eating at a feeder and he flew over to the Bougainvillea and fluffed out to rest.

 
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.

 
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Checking the Nest

 Saturday was the end of "Fiesta" here in Santa Barbara. In theory, Fiesta or Old Spanish Days is a celebration of the founding of the city. Ironically, most of the locals leave town for it. It has kind of devolved over time to just a generally wild party in the streets.

With everyone out of town I was not expecting a huge day at the show. Especially because my normal location was at the opposite end of La Cumbre Plaza under a stage with a bunch of dancers on it. But my first sale made the day worth it.

A little boy stopped with his mom, one of my cards seemed to really catch his eye. After talking to them for a bit, I found out that he liked hummingbirds. So I gave him some pictures to look at that were a little out of his reach. I had not intended to sell him anything, I just love to see kids' reactions to my images. But he fell in love with this image. And, after a small discussion with his mom, he decided to buy it with his allowance.

So in honor of my favorite customer of the week I thought I would find another picture of Mrs. "A" in case he stops by the site.

 
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.

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