I love to watch hummingbirds, I find them captivating. A few weekends ago we were at a rustic cabin. Where the owner had recently placed a giant hummingbird feeder with fresh homemade nectar! Upon arrival at the cabin there were about a dozen of those little hummingbirds buzzing all around the feeder and crepe myrtle close by.
For those of you who have been in a small swarm of hummingbirds, you are familiar with the low and rhythmic hum of their wings. I swear to you, the proximity to this swarm sounded like we were in the midst of a beehive. By the time I got over the sensory overload, I darted to the van and grabbed my camera.
Now, when I say, “darted to the van,” I mean that I shambled clumsily over uneven terrain crashing torso first into the side of my van. Upon rising to my feet I opened the drivers-side sliding door and tore into my camera pack with reckless abandon. With lens caps strewn about the cargo hold, I emerged to find the swarm oblivious to my antics and my left flip-flop missing.
Not unlike a zombie from a Netflix Original Series, I slowly crept along the fence-line and into position to strike… A series of continuous shutter snaps later, I captured a time-lapse of numerous hummingbirds resting, feeding and swarming the fresh nectar. Fortunately for me, when I left the house and packed my gear, I had remembered to take my 400mm telephoto lens. I absolutely adore this lens for capturing birds at a range of about 15-30 yards.
In the end, I not only got some nice shots, but I didn’t scare off the birds either. In fact, the birds were so omnipresent all weekend and oblivious to my antics, that I really could have just taken my time and would have got all these same, or at least similar shots, the whole of the weekend.
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