Hummer Rig ’25

I love hummers! My love of them goes back to when I was six at my aunt’s home, watching them out the kitchen nook window, feeding their young. They were literally one of the first nesting birds I photographed back in the dark ages, and I’ve jumped at the challenge of bringing their world to you ever since. Not having sharp wings is a big part of the story I want to visually express. The jewel quality of their plumage as well. Using biology and combining it with technology makes it a joy to photograph these miniature gems. Here’s how I’m doing it in 2025 (it has evolved continually for over forty years).

The Profoto A10s are all about color and typically set manually in the 3-5 range based on the ambient light. The ISO is set so I have a shutter speed in the 1/250 range, which blurs the wings. That ISO is in the 400-1600 range. I always shoot at f8. The Z 9 AF is Wide C2 bird mode. The HUGE upgrade this year is the Z180-600! Having an incredibly sharp lens is only part of it, that zoom is everything. Keep in mind that flash works on the inverse square law, the bottom line, the closer to the subject not only does the light wrap around the hummer smoother, the flash has to work less. This year at Madera Canyon, the Costa’s was the smallest hummer at less than 2″, and the Rivoli’s the largest over at 5″. Being able to zoom in for the Costa’s and out for the Rivoli’s is huge! The aperture doesn’t change since it’s set to f8. Flash exposure doesn’t change cause it doesn’t physically doesn’t move. The lens is focused down the “alley” as the hummers come to the feeders, just hit the AF-ON button and shoot. It’s not shooting fish in a barrel, plenty of images with nothing, literally nothing in the frame as the little suckers can move! But there are plenty of images where you catch them and that’s the fun, the fun of Hummer Rig ’25!