Hummingbird Photography

Hummingbird photography is one of my favorite when photographing these birds.  These birds have a lot of rich color and move fast which makes the photography a little more difficult.  They are birds of habit, so I have found just sitting and watching them teaches me how they act.  I notice that they are most active in the early morning just after sunrise.

Planning My Day

When I am planning to do photograph hummingbirds, I do usually leave early in the morning with my camera.  I set my camera on high-speed shooting with continuous auto focus   This is important because the small bird flies so fast, it is hard to time that perfect shot.  The camera has animal tracking feature, but I find this does not work very well because of all the brush around the bird. When photographing these birds on a branch, I move very slowly and frame my camera as desired. Capturing the light in the birds eye is the key to getting a nice sharp photo.   Capturing these birds in flight, I found that the tracking in the camera can help ad long as there is not a lot of brush in the area.   Setting a fast shutter speed of 1/2000 and a wide depth of field, and having ISO on auto works best.   Knowing the time of day the birds are feeding helps prepare me to find the best spot during that time.