Single-strobe Hummingbird Photography
G’day Everyone,
Conventional wisdom recommends using several strobes for photographing hummingbirds. Typically, hummingbird setups employ two strobes at about 45 degrees either side of the bird and level with it, a top and bottom light, and one or two additional strobes to light the background. My brief note here is not intended to refute the merits of this standart technique, not at all. Indeed, most circumstances will require a number of strobes to properly illuminate the scene and freeze the wing motion, especially in the field when one is not entirely in control of all the variables, i.e., flash to subject distance, the distance between the main subject and the backgroud, ambient light, etc.
However, under certain conditions, it is possible to capture outstanding images of hummingbirds with a single strobe…and a little help from the sun.
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Hand-Held Macro Photography
Hey all – Rob here…
Since starting photography in 2004, May to August have always been my most productive months. There are plenty of subjects to choose from: birds, amphibians, flowers, insects, landscapes… On weekends, I’d often head out before dawn to the Ile Bizard marsh to photograph birds, frogs, turtles, otters or other marsh residents. When I don’t feel like getting up before dawn, I’d set up for macro photography a little later in the morning.
This year? Man, oh man… May, June and July were cool, very wet and windy. Montreal had record amounts of rain in July (4.6 inches), with some rainfall on 26 days out of 31 days. You can forget about going to the Ile Bizard marsh for bird photography in these conditions, as it will be very quiet. And windy or very sunny conditions make traditional macro photography extremely difficult.
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