I’ve been shooting Anna’s Hummingbirds (and a couple Rufous when I can catch them) from the beginning of my birding days, but they’re hard to capture! For a couple years I managed to get pretty decent shots of these beauties — young and adult, stretching, eating, eating in flight, and so on — but I always yearned for more. Better gear and lots of practise gradually led to better results, like this little guy in March of last year:
The next peak in my hummingbird photography happened in November, where a territorial male got very close to my questing lens…
… followed by this first-winter male just starting to grow his face bling.
But that wasn’t the end! Some time in January, I started noticing a male had claimed the bushes south of the Sunset Beach dog beach. He turned out to be a super reliable resident, choosing a variety of perches, so I was able to take a lot of amazing shots from many different angles.
One time he happened to land very close to me, and I got my best shot so far. Better than that one on the fence, since I got some of his pink / gold shininess this time. Plus, if you zoom in, you can even see the underside of Burrard Bridge reflected in his eye!
And after that day… I’ve let myself relax a bit. Through all that practice and growth, I always really envied people who could get those really good hummingbird photos, especially of males in all their shiny glory. It seemed like purest magic to me, something deep down I didn’t really believe I could do myself. But now I’d done it! I’d proven myself—I know, I don’t have anything to prove, but that’s what it felt like. Still a hell of an achievement and best of all, I know I can do it again.
But I can take it slow! It’s not a race; not against hummingbirds, and especially not against more experienced photographers. It’s a bit of a struggle to find inspiration without wallowing in comparison, but I’m getting there.