Photographing Ruby Throated Hummers Near The Crocosmia

The Crocosmia (Lucifer) flowers…with their arching stems and bright green pleated blade-like leaves are showy and exotic-looking right now. The Hummingbirds are buzzing in and out, attracted to the intense scarlet red of the tubular flowers.

The flower clusters sport lots of blossoms which poke out every which way. Some of the blooming and almost blooming flowers reach out above the 3′ high stems, affording one or two places where the camera’s lens could isolate the delicate petals from the busyness of foliage.

My goal:  Set up the camera on the front porch, approximately 14-16 feet from the Crocosmia and try to capture an uncluttered image of a hummer very near, but not drinking from the flowers.

Judicious Cropping

This grand Lucifer patch is too lovely to prune so I have to manipulate the camera rig in to just the right position, and perhaps gingerly fold or tuck a few of the stems to one side or the other. (NOTE: Most of the judicious cropping will have to be done in post processing.)

Hummingbirds appear confident and fearless once they get used to you. My plan required that the hummers cooperate by choosing one of the designated patches of flowers upon which to drink and pose. After only a day, this little one zoomed in close to my face, chittering away as she looked me over. She then proceeded with her nectar drinking routine..sip-back away-hover-look around-repeat.

Flash or No Flash

The morning light was filtered by the fully leafed-out tall trees above and around the house.  As I set up, I noticed that the wind appeared uncertain about its direction and intensity. The hummers didn’t seem to care, but an unexpected gust would certainly impact my efforts to achieve image clarity.

To stop wing motion on a hummer (without flash), I have had to set the shutter speed to as high as 1/6400 second. (NOTE: Think about how fast that is! I remember when the shutter speed on a couple of my old cameras did not go above 1/1000 second.) Setting the shutter speed that high in our sun filtered yard would send the ISO soaring to unacceptable levels. I attached the flash.

Stopping wing motion with flash requires that I set the exposure parameters to shoot with little or no ambient light. With the flash attached, the shutter is synced at 1/250 second or slower. The more I tightened the aperture, the less the ambient light creeped in – the darker the background became. It would then be up to the synced, instantaneous and powerful flash burst to not only illuminate, but freeze all movement.

More Ambient, Less Flash

I have to choose between freezing the hummer’s wing motion or maintaining a more natural look. An exposure conundrum because I can’t have both. The more ambient light I let in, the more natural the image looks, and the more impossible it becomes for the flash to freeze the wing action. This is especially true if the overall ambient light illuminating the flower and bird scene meters out to be very similar to the exposure settings required for the background.

For this shoot, I raised the ISO settings in order to let the ambient light on the scene dominate exposure settings more. This strategy helped reduce the impact of the flash blast on the subject, creating a better balance of light.

Ultimately, I liked the look of ambient light more than I liked the look of tack sharp wing feathers. I chose to set the exposure parameters so that ambient light dominated and the flash provided only fill light.

Photographing An Anna’s Hummingbird

Bird photography opportunities rarely come at times when the light is optimal.

These images of an Anna’s Hummingbird were captured in sunny San Diego at mid-day. The camera and 300mm lens with 1.4 extender were pointing downward toward a row of flowering bushes. I took a few shots using only the drop-in gelatin filter that came with the lens. (See image directly below.) I then removed the gelatin filter and dropped in Canon Circular Polarizing Filter (PL-C52). It took a while for my hands to get used to positioning the filter with the external control rotation wheel. Eventually I got the hang of it.

What a difference! (See second image below.)

(NOTE: This drop-in circular polarizing filter will fit in both of my telephoto lenses – the EF300 f/2.8 L IS II and the EF500mm f/4L IS II.)

Long Lens Circular Polarizers

A polarizer manages reflections and cuts glare in much the same way as polarizing sunglasses do.

• A polarizer will reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor and impact your exposure settings (from 1-3 stops).

• Circular polarizers have dials which must be rotated to optimally cut glare. As you rotate the polarizer, your goal is to dial-in the best color saturation and contrast and dial out reflection and glare. The end result should be more balanced light on the scene. (NOTE: You simply can’t do this much glare reduction in post processing).

• If a bird flies to a shady spot– a no glare zone– the polarizer does not negatively impact the image, except for light loss.

• Wearing polarized sunglasses while using a circular polarizer on your lens will prevent you from seeing all the leafy glare and rotating the filter optimally. In addition, polarized sunglasses on top of polarized drop-in filter make for dark and difficult viewing.

• Polarizers are most effective when the lens is pointed at a right angle to the sun. Depending on the location of the bird and the angle of your lens, the polarizing impact may not be uniform across the whole image.

• Because you must dial in the best position for optimal glare control, composing may take longer. (NOTE: Repositioning the polarizer was a constant battle as this hummer flitted up and down forcing me to change the len’s trajectory and re-rotate the polarizer’s dial.)

• Linear polarizers are cheaper, but won’t work with auto exposure and auto focusing functions– making them pretty useless for bird photography.

Lens Flare and Lens Glare

Lens flare is no more than stray light (usually unintentional and undesirable) sneaking in and bouncing around the inside of a camera lens and leaving on your images an assortment of light specters, streaks, fogging and ghost images shaped like the diaphragm of the lens. Lens Flare is almost always a consequence of backlighting coming into the lens. To control or otherwise reduce flare, you either move the lens or attempt to shield it, using a hood on the lens barrel, your hand, your hat, or a polarizing filter.

Glare is reflected and scattered light on the surface of water, leaves, flowers, glass, bald heads, etc that does not necessarily originate from the lens.

Filters On A Long Lens

In all my long years as a photographer, I never purchased a polarizer or any kind of filter for my lenses, until now. I assumed that these tools were better suited for landscape photographers even though I often found unbalanced light and shimmery glare on my bird images. I should have known better.

Soft, diffused natural light is elusive….even when you show up at the right time and follow all the rules. Too much mid-day unshielded sunlight... contrasty and harsh, is impossible to avoid and hard to control without proper equipment to make shade or reduce shadows.

You can’t purchase filters large enough to put on the end of Canon’s big telephoto lenses. Most of Canon’s longer telephoto lenses come equipped (close to the base of the lens) with a drop-in gel filter holder (with a clear glass filter installed). Quality drop-in circular polarizers are expensive, and only useful on longer lenses.

Bottom line, the best quality of light for bird photography is still sun rise or sun set. However, opportunities abound for bird photography at mid day.  A polarizing filter is a good light weight solution to tame the sun.

Photographing the Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds are plentiful in our yard and feed on a wide variety of small insects, spiders, sap and nectar. They linger into early October before commencing on their migration journeys. During Spring and Summer, these tiny birds are commonly seen on and around feeders making them relatively easy to photograph.

Guarding Food Sources

Every time I photograph birds in our yard, I always notice one or two aggressive Ruby Throated Hummingbirds acting like bullies around a hummingbird feeder. This behavior can be described as territorial and takes the form of menacing, purposeful, greedy dive bombing of other hummers who attempt to drink from the same hummingbird feeder.

On this particular shoot, an aggressive female unconcerned with me established herself on a camera level perch very close to the feeder. She spent the whole morning standing guard, watching, waiting, only occasionally coming to the feeder for a quick drink. I also managed to photograph another female hummer (see photo below). She crouched down in the wet foliage to hide and watched for an opportunity to sidle past the sentry and sneak in for a drink at the feeder.

Some (Anthropomorphic) Observations of Aggressive Hummer Behavior

• The aggressive Hummer (either male or female) will defend food resources relentlessly, so much so that I wonder when they find the time to get enough nourishment for themselves.

• They are not afraid to insistently confront humans when their feeders run dry.

• They choose a “watchtower” perch near the feeder that provides the best vantage point from which to watch for trespassers.

• They create a “no fly zone” into which all other hummers are considered trespassers. If another hummer gets too close, they initiate an attack.

• This aggressive behavior includes: loud chittering, tail and wing displays, dive bombing, pursuing the interloper until he is out of the designated territory,  aggressive ramming using their chests, sharp beaks, and claws.

• These individuals guard their food source all summer, right up to the time they leave on migration.

• Solutions to this behavior include clustering multiple nectar feeders in one area or widely separating them….. making them impossible for one individual to police.

There were plenty of opportunities to photograph the hummers on the feeder, but where’s the challenge in that?  I wanted to capture some hummer flight action– but for the most part, the dizzying speed and agility of these little birds left my tracking abilities in the dust. I did manage to capture the aggressor hovering over the feeder in between dashes to and from her watchtower perch.

Hoping for a Vagrant Hummer to Visit

As I sit and watch the birds, I keep hoping I will see and photograph an uncommonly seen species of hummer as she passes through our yard in the Fall or Spring. The most likely species for Southwest Michigan would probably be the Rufous Hummer. More rare and accidental spottings have been documented in Michigan of the more elusive Broad-billed Hummingbirds, the Green Violet-ear Hummingbirds, and the White-Eared hummingbirds.

It could happen.

Photographing An Anna’s Hummer Bathing

It was early in the morning in San Diego with the sun (my only illuminate) rising fast in the sky. We came upon a small house decorated with a bubbling stone bird bath pushed up close to a creamy stucco wall. A dozen or so palm fronds leaned against the wall, their green and brown shoots mingling with the creamy wall and creating distracting shadows on my background. Two bathing Anna’s Hummingbirds darted in and out of the gushing water. My presence did not disrupt their activities, so I positioned myself so the sun was slightly to my left. White balance on my camera was set to “Cloudy” (as usual), to bring out the warm tones that I prefer.

“As Shot” White Balance Setting In Lightroom

In post processing, I try not so much to accurately reproduce the color temperature, but to create a pleasing balance between warm and cool tones. The first image (above) illustrates how the camera interpreted the “Cloudy” white balance setting. (NOTE: To bring out the detail, I had to heavily adjust the highlights and shadows sliders in Lightroom.)

I generally like the golden tones I get from the “Cloudy” setting, but the color cast in these photos looked very unnatural to me-a gaudy and unpleasant yellow.

In Lightroom, I corrected these brassy colors by changing the “As Shot” white balance setting to “Auto”.  As you can see in the second image below, “Auto” rather drastically neutralized the color temperature to a cooler and, to my eye, a more natural and pleasing tone. 

NOTE:  Sadly, no matter what white balance color hue I chose, the bird’s chin and breast area closely matched its stone perch, making the subject rather indistinct from its surroundings. 

Color Tint and Temperature

White Balance allows you to choose how the camera sees the color temperature. (Almost all cameras have an “auto” white balance setting, allowing the camera to guess at the color of light appropriate for the scene.) The “goal” of setting the white balance is to customize color tint and temperature to get an image with a specific color tone. It can be warm, neutral or cool; as true-to-life or as unorthodox as you want it. White balance settings allow you to paint with the hue of light you prefer and cast the mood appropriate to the image.

Trust Your Creative Judgment

Assuming you shoot in RAW and are photographing birds using only sun light (not a mix of natural and artificial light) Lightroom’s AUTO white balance setting generates reliably good results. If you want to experiment further, Lightroom and most other post processing software offer the resources to fine tune from a wide variance of color temperature and tints, no matter how white balance was set on the camera.

When reviewing your bird photographs, take the time to become more discerning about how temperature and tint of light affect your images. Most of all, trust your creative judgment.