There is a special time when critters like to come out, just before sunrise and right after sunset. This light is incredibly soft, non-directional, and nearly shadowless. It is also mostly blue. That color cast, cold color cast can either be a plus or a minus depending on the story you want to tell about your subject. In this case, it’s a minus.
There is one odd thing about my vision, I see that blue color cast when I’m out shooting. Real old training from the days of film and using CC filters. When I see this, I tend to change my White Balance in camera to get the photo right with that click (In this case setting it to 8200k). That’s because when the image comes up in PhotoMechanic, I want to see the correct image, not the image before it need to be corrected.
If you move the slider back and forth above, imagine if all you saw the “cold” photo, a whole bunch of them in your image browser. What would your opinion of those “blue” images? Now move the slider to the “warm” shot in the camera correct image. How do you feel now about that photo, a whole browser full of cute Bambis?
While you have the twilight blues when you’re shooting, there is no reason why you have to have them when you look at those images in your browser. The call is all yours :-)
Photographing hummers is a favorite pastime of mine, one I don’t get to do often enough. There are some great images out there waiting for us all and I want to pass along what I’ve gleaned in the hopes you to get taken with the little jewels. The video covers the biology, technology, and shooting strategies I’ve picked up over the years leading me to my greatest success so far, but not to my best. I hope you take what I have provided and run with it, creating even better photographs of hummers you share with the world!
Broad-billed Hummingbird captured by D6 / 180-400VR / 2x SB-5000
Hummers are just fun to watch! Their speed, their flying, their character, and the way they think every feeder belongs to just them. And apparently, they have this “possession” complex right from the start. Here, an immature Broad-billed Hummer, not more than two months old is challenging an adult for the right to be at the feeder. Now they eat half their body weight each day in “sugar” to keep that 50 beats a second wings going. But you think they could eat less if they didn’t always fight over the feeder. And in this case, there were FIVE feeders, enough for everyone but no, this one was his, dang it!
Photographically, I love the challenge of getting more than one hummer in the frame. That is challenging enough but getting them both in focus, well, I’ve only gotten close so far to that goal (and you know what they say about close, atom bombs and the like). I shot this with the D6 / 180-400VR & 2x SB-5000 which is my dream rig. Photographing hummers for 40 years, this rig definitely made it the easiest and funniest experience. And I got closer to my photographic goals. I shot a video on the whole process I’ll be posting soon. Good times, good times.
Broad-billed Hummingbird captured by D6 / 18-400VR / 2x SB-5000
These flying jewels can entertain us for hours on end and all they are doing is, eating! In the summer down in Arizona on the border, there is a special canyon where the hummers come by the hundreds to the feeders consuming half their body weight in a day on just nector. If you sit yourself down as I have with a D6 / 180-400VR / 2x SB-5000 and you’re lucky, you’ll get a shot of two of this activity to take home with you. It’s actually not easy, takes time and patience but well, it’s just about one of the funniest thing I know of in wildlife photography!
It was so bright, your eyes would light up white even though they were closed tight against the pillow! The walls shock with every clamp and it was, magnificent! It’s monsoon season in SE Arizona and the storms our first day was a great warm-up. It was long after midnight when the skies overhead really opened up, quite spectacular. I love lightning. When I went outside first thing this morning at 05:00 though, there was a funny color to the predawn skies. My first thought was dread that a new wildfire had been lit by the storm that night. Within a few moments though, once I walked out from under the oaks, I saw it was remnants of the thunderstorm bouncing around the first glimpse of the sun. I ran back into the cabin, grabbed the D6 / 8-15Fish, and then ran back out and up the road. The next twenty minutes were per Mother Nature magic. Oh, the skies. Wowzers!
I was sitting there very comfortably reading and watching the evening thunderstorm build outside. The light was getting nicer and nicer and there I sat watching it when the lightbulb went off in my head, “I’m not here just to sit and watch it!” I flew out of my chair, grabbed the D6, and attached the 14-24AFS, and walked out the door with just my flaps on. While I got out, I still wasn’t taking the opportunity laid in my lap seriously. As soon as I got out the door though I saw it just wasn’t just a purdy cloud, it was a magnificent sky! The chase was on.
The sky was ablaze, the wind was whistling and I was in flaps heading up the sage up our hill! The clouds were moving so I moved as fast as I could to a clearing so take in as much as I could. Set to 14mm, I realized I still didn’t have wide enough glass. I then had to decide what part of the explosion would bring home the story. It was an intense, fun, and rewarding fifteen minutes watching Mother Nature put on one helluva show. As I walked back down to house it dawned on me I had already become too complacent and not chasing the photographs as I should be. Yeah, I could blame it on COVID but that wouldn’t be honest. It was I had seen it before, I’d seen it a lot at The Ranch and just assumed I’d see it again. I don’t know, I thought I would shoot it the next time? But I’d not shot it before so why did I think I would the next time? I don’t know who or what kicked my butt but it needed kicking ’cause I would be really sad to have missed that show now that I know what I know. That’s the thought we have to keep in mind. It’s pretty simple though, it’s not why I’m here.
