C’mon! It’s from Peru! Thanks for featuring me! The place where I took the hummingbird pic is Ensifera ensifera in the Sacred Valley in Cusco. The perch is not a setup but a natural one modified by the owner of the place
A guide in Costa Rica told me they stopped using feeders with sugar water because they found the sugar water weakens the beaks of the humming birds in the long run. Instead they planted some flowers at the entrance of the reserve the hummingbirds were naturally drawn to. As a photographer you immediately get a more natural background too. Win-win imho. 😉 As always, a really nice episode guys!
I'm a hummingbird photographer and agree with the Sony A1 powered with the 300mm f/2.8 and w/the 1.4 and 2x tele my recent trip to Colombia was even more successful than with the 600mm f/4. Hummers are difficult especially the ones that only feed on flowers. Positions and an entirely different mindset and let alone different camera settings.
I love photographing hummingbirds. i have been doing it for many, many years. I only have done it in my backyard and never gone to Central America. I typically use a multi flash set up with 4-6 flashes with a background. I use light stands. With mirrorless I'm starting to change to using less flash. This was a good series to see what I have been doing for years. I primarily use "A" clamps for creating set ups for birds in my backyard. I use fabric, Tarps and masonite boards for my backgrounds.You can see all of the techniques I have used in my book published eight years ago. It is , "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography", from Rocky Nook Publishing.
i am so happy you mention sunbirds, they are always overlooked depict their stunning beauty, in my region we get three, Palestine, Arabian shinning (new split for shinning sunbird of east Africa) and the glorious Nile Valley sunbird which i have two pairs in my garden. through out the years i learnt to plant for them the trees that got the flowers they love, like Tamarind, moringa and for sure the Tamarix which grow naturally here, also it almost certain you can find one on Sodom Apple tree flowers. never managed to attract them to sugar water feeder like those of the humming birds, but they love the Orange and Mandarin slices i put for other birds. and guess what they like, Dates sukari type (the most expensive, LOL) and that seemed to be logical since there name in Arabic is Tumair which means little date. thanks so much for this great video.
Thank both of you, as always, for the content and effort. I have to say, none of my photos of hummingbirds at flowers were every setup with sugar water. As you mention, because they are so habitual, I've always just sat and waited - where I know they will come and feed on the flowers. They do move around and do not always come back to the same bunch. Time of day/evening is also important. I guess I'm fortunate to live close to an area where people take great pains to place colorful flowering plants in their backyards - or have Texas wildflowers nearby and their love of humming birds encourages them to open their doors to others. I know Moose Peterson made a video here about flash photography and hummingbirds. Thanks again.
Great video as always guys. Here where i live in Rio Grande do Sul, in south Brazil, we have a lot of beautiful Hummingbirds. So in my garden i have several feeding stations, both for them and other species. Often goes 15-20 kg bananas every week heheh. About editing. Yes i have several times gone back to an image and regretted that i shared it, seeing a lot of things i would have done different hehehe. Haven't shared much photos lately because of the biggest nature disaster in history for this state, close to where i live. Hopefully I will be able to get out again soon. Wishing you a great weekend with a lot of happy moments guys. Cheers, Bjoern
Thanks so much for all your videos and tutorials, I really appreciate them. Would love a tweak of the week about how you choose which proset to use in different situations. Thanks so much!
Fantastic episode! I learned a lot about hummingbird photography techniques. It seems that one of the most important considerations is setting up an appropriate perch and background.
A lot of zip ties are used by many for set ups, if I didn't know Alan Murphy owned a hair salon before he became the bird god, I would swear he was a cop. I take a different approach. I use clip clamps, nano clamps, and super clamps on mini ball heads for branch positioning. For the stand itself I used to use lighting stands and the best of those were nano stands. While those were light enough, they are not compact. These days I use some of the smallest, lightest travel tripods - the kind you would never set a camera on. They are not tall, but tall enough for the purpose. They are very light, my Siruis weigh about a pound, and fold down to around a foot in length instead of closer to two. While I recognize the value of offering many multiples of branches at a set up, I'm often using studio lighting and want to limit the options - focus the birds to one or two branches. It takes more discipline and creates some longer wait times but allows me better positioning control. Nice show!
I photograph some Anna Hummingbird on my fuchsia plant. I do it through my family room window while sitting at my desk. I have had some success-- Across the yard is a large green hedge and gives me a good background
Excellent update on the changing technology and techniques that can be used as well as reviewing the methods that have been used. Here in Ohio the Ruby-throated hummingbirds are returning. Can’t wait to get going photographing these beauties again.
I've only seen a hummingbird once, when on holidays in 2013 in California... I live in Australia, so no hummingbirds here. I was not expecting to see a humming bird, it landed on a handrail just 70cm in front of me. Stayed the for half a second and the flew of in a flash. It was the most amazingly half second with a bird I've experienced.
Very nice episode! I've only photographed hummingbirds hand-held without flash. Mirrorless obviously makes this much, much easier than the before-time with DSLR, or even further back in the days of film. By the way, Costa Rica and Ecuador are clearly moving away from having hummingbird feeders in their National Parks. This makes photography much more challenging, but quite rewarding when one gets "the shot."
Superb episode waiting for hummingbirds here. Btw one suggestion, in photo of the week, you used to do show before and after versions. Can you please include that
I have been experimenting with using faster shorter lenses like a 50 mm f1.8 or a 135 mm f2.8. I set the camera on a tripod and fire the camera remotely.
Great video guys 🙂👍 We have Hummer feeders all around the house, and have Hummers year round. I've shot them at anywhere from 1/10,000th with wings frozen right to the tips, to 1/80th, where the body and eye were still sharp, but the wings were completely blurred. In the end, I have come back to about 1/600th to 1/800th, to show enough wing blur that they appear natural, or should I say, to approximate what my eyes actually see when I'm watching them hover. Also, it's easy to get enough natural light for these kinds of shutter speeds. Just my personal preference though 🙂
Hi Jan & Glenn, thanks a lot for another great show full of awesome birds ! When shooting hummingbirds with the R5, do you use electronic shutter to get higher fps, or rather EFCS to avoid rolling shutter ?
@@GlennBartley Thanks for the advice Glenn !! I recently picked up a Smallrig battery, to be able to charge it from a powerbank once the EFCS fps slows down when the battery drops below about halfway. The R5ii looks like a dream, but if we'd want to visit Costa Rica next year the R5ii will have to wait .. and when it soon will be followed by an R7ii with stacked sensor, CFxB card and ISO wheel .. then that might even be a better option for birding ;-)
Thank you so much for the positive feedback, I feel flattered. Meaning a lot to me coming from you, I learned a ton from you guys. We have to work on my Name tho, Glenn 😉. Cheers, Kai
Fantastic episode as always - wish we had some hummingbirds here in South Asia too! And thanks for featuring my photo - the Black throated bush tit - it was a natural shot from a forest area! But appreciate the feedback - something I will work on!
We have 1 hummingbird in my part of the USA, Ohio. The Ruby throated. They are pretty easy to get to your backyard feeders, and I try to get them to my backyard flowers with limited success. I have the most success at local arboretums with a variety of flowers. It’s a fun way to spend the afternoon! Glenn’s book is amazing. There is no trip to Costa Rica in my future, but it’s nice to see these amazing diverse types of hummingbirds! I don’t belong to any specific religion, but seeing all the wonderful diversity in nature makes me think.. God does really good work! Happy shooting.
Either that are the Aliens have a really good Lab for creating stuff. I also live in the USA and when you stated only 1 type of Hummingbird, I was kind of surprised, we have the same main Hummer but supposedly 11 others that fly through during migration. Have you tried the Milkweed or Zinnia(Early Bird), I have ZERO feeders on my current property while my nextdoor neighbor has several. But the last several years I noticed a few feeding on those 2 plants I mentioned during the normal season almost daily.
Always enjoy the show! I am full of questions today... Jan does your Master Class cover your color correction methods? In your image of the month section you often mention color casts... which I must admit, I don't always notice. I already own and daily use your prosets. Wondering if you have a bundle price for the Master Class and brush pack? I have DxO PureRaw3, but have not yet upgraded to PureRaw4. I also have Topaz and (of course) Adobe Enhance. So wondering if the DxO PureRaw 4 upgrade will make a difference. I find that I can get very different results from the three different products. Thanks so much for your time and opinions.
I got a few decent images of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds a few years ago. I hope to get a better one now with my mirrorless setup. EDIT: that swallow does appear to be a Golden Swallow. Other than a slight copper tint on some of the wing feathers, there's no hint of gold on it. 🤷🏿♂️
I don't understand why this is even possible, "Hummingbirds are only found in the Western Hemisphere. Their locus of diversity is the Andes mountains in South America, there are also some that breed in North America and in the Caribbean. They are absent from everywhere else on Earth, including all of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/Oceania, and Antarctica." I wonder if they were elsewhere but somehow went extinct. It's beyond insane that these birds are only found in the Americas. INSANE! One would think that folks would brought them over from other parts of the World and they spread.
"One would think that folks would brought them over from other parts of the World and they spread." Right?? I must say iam as baffled as you my friend....
I presume they're very dependent on certain plants to feed on. many of them are very specialised with their beaks for instance. So there may not be great for sources elsewhere or they'd die before they adapt
@@jan_wegener AUDUBON MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004 Banding Hummingbirds to Solve their Mysterious Ways "The rufous hummingbird, however, is of particular concern. Some of these hummers travel about 6,000 miles round-trip between the forests of central Mexico and coastal Alaska each year measured in body lengths, it’s the longest migration of any bird in North America. According to the Breeding Bird Survey, conducted annually by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Canadian Wildlife Service, from 1966 to 2002 the species has experienced a decline of 2.7 percent per year across its range. To refuel for extended migrations, hummingbirds require stopovers in reliably nectar-rich habitat. But these areas are disappearing, not just in Mexico and Central America but throughout the United States. “As the birds move south, their habitat becomes more and more degraded. They waste a lot of time looking in flowers that aren’t going to provide them with any reward in food or calories,” says Grantham. Prime habitat all along their migration routes is being chewed up by everything from suburban sprawl and pesticides to invasive species and chip mills."
Most grueling part of video creation is the mentioned 1 hour of editing for 1 minute content. It is worth it, but damn if its painful at times when you wish you were taking more photos/videos instead.
C’mon! It’s from Peru! Thanks for featuring me! The place where I took the hummingbird pic is Ensifera ensifera in the Sacred Valley in Cusco. The perch is not a setup but a natural one modified by the owner of the place
Nice!
ha, so I almost guessed right :) Well done
A guide in Costa Rica told me they stopped using feeders with sugar water because they found the sugar water weakens the beaks of the humming birds in the long run.
Instead they planted some flowers at the entrance of the reserve the hummingbirds were naturally drawn to. As a photographer you immediately get a more natural background too.
Win-win imho. 😉
As always, a really nice episode guys!
Thanks for sharing
I'm a hummingbird photographer and agree with the Sony A1 powered with the 300mm f/2.8 and w/the 1.4 and 2x tele my recent trip to Colombia was even more successful than with the 600mm f/4. Hummers are difficult especially the ones that only feed on flowers. Positions and an entirely different mindset and let alone different camera settings.
I love photographing hummingbirds. i have been doing it for many, many years. I only have done it in my backyard and never gone to Central America. I typically use a multi flash set up with 4-6 flashes with a background. I use light stands. With mirrorless I'm starting to change to using less flash. This was a good series to see what I have been doing for years. I primarily use "A" clamps for creating set ups for birds in my backyard. I use fabric, Tarps and masonite boards for my backgrounds.You can see all of the techniques I have used in my book published eight years ago. It is , "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography", from Rocky Nook Publishing.
i am so happy you mention sunbirds, they are always overlooked depict their stunning beauty, in my region we get three, Palestine, Arabian shinning (new split for shinning sunbird of east Africa) and the glorious Nile Valley sunbird which i have two pairs in my garden. through out the years i learnt to plant for them the trees that got the flowers they love, like Tamarind, moringa and for sure the Tamarix which grow naturally here, also it almost certain you can find one on Sodom Apple tree flowers.
never managed to attract them to sugar water feeder like those of the humming birds, but they love the Orange and Mandarin slices i put for other birds. and guess what they like, Dates sukari type (the most expensive, LOL) and that seemed to be logical since there name in Arabic is Tumair which means little date.
thanks so much for this great video.
Thanks for sharing that info. Sunbirds are gorgeous!
Thank both of you, as always, for the content and effort. I have to say, none of my photos of hummingbirds at flowers were every setup with sugar water. As you mention, because they are so habitual, I've always just sat and waited - where I know they will come and feed on the flowers. They do move around and do not always come back to the same bunch. Time of day/evening is also important. I guess I'm fortunate to live close to an area where people take great pains to place colorful flowering plants in their backyards - or have Texas wildflowers nearby and their love of humming birds encourages them to open their doors to others. I know Moose Peterson made a video here about flash photography and hummingbirds. Thanks again.
Great video as always guys. Here where i live in Rio Grande do Sul, in south Brazil, we have a lot of beautiful Hummingbirds. So in my garden i have several feeding stations, both for them and other species. Often goes 15-20 kg bananas every week heheh. About editing. Yes i have several times gone back to an image and regretted that i shared it, seeing a lot of things i would have done different hehehe.
Haven't shared much photos lately because of the biggest nature disaster in history for this state, close to where i live. Hopefully I will be able to get out again soon.
Wishing you a great weekend with a lot of happy moments guys.
Cheers, Bjoern
Thanks Bjoern!
Really good Segment! Jan seems to be a Real Good Interviewer as Well!
Thanks
Thanks so much for all your videos and tutorials, I really appreciate them. Would love a tweak of the week about how you choose which proset to use in different situations. Thanks so much!
Great show as always guys, keep it up. I have to say that you mentioned colour castes in post processing and I really struggle sometimes to see them!
Yes, it can be hard. What can help is to just shift the cast around to some extremes and then back. That will often mal you realise something is up
Fantastic episode! I learned a lot about hummingbird photography techniques. It seems that one of the most important considerations is setting up an appropriate perch and background.
Glad you enjoyed the show!
Yes, that helps!
A lot of zip ties are used by many for set ups, if I didn't know Alan Murphy owned a hair salon before he became the bird god, I would swear he was a cop.
I take a different approach. I use clip clamps, nano clamps, and super clamps on mini ball heads for branch positioning. For the stand itself I used to use lighting stands and the best of those were nano stands. While those were light enough, they are not compact. These days I use some of the smallest, lightest travel tripods - the kind you would never set a camera on. They are not tall, but tall enough for the purpose. They are very light, my Siruis weigh about a pound, and fold down to around a foot in length instead of closer to two.
While I recognize the value of offering many multiples of branches at a set up, I'm often using studio lighting and want to limit the options - focus the birds to one or two branches. It takes more discipline and creates some longer wait times but allows me better positioning control.
Nice show!
Bald Eagles and Hummingbirds are my two favorite, most of the time I use multi flash setups in my back deck for hummingbird capture
I photograph some Anna Hummingbird on my fuchsia plant. I do it through my family room window while sitting at my desk. I have had some success-- Across the yard is a large green hedge and gives me a good background
Nice. Always great to get them from home!
Excellent update on the changing technology and techniques that can be used as well as reviewing the methods that have been used.
Here in Ohio the Ruby-throated hummingbirds are returning. Can’t wait to get going photographing these beauties again.
Really good tips! Thanks so much!
You are so welcome!
Great video! Thanks. Just ordered Glenns book. Looks beautiful!
Thank you!
I've only seen a hummingbird once, when on holidays in 2013 in California... I live in Australia, so no hummingbirds here. I was not expecting to see a humming bird, it landed on a handrail just 70cm in front of me. Stayed the for half a second and the flew of in a flash. It was the most amazingly half second with a bird I've experienced.
Very nice episode! I've only photographed hummingbirds hand-held without flash. Mirrorless obviously makes this much, much easier than the before-time with DSLR, or even further back in the days of film. By the way, Costa Rica and Ecuador are clearly moving away from having hummingbird feeders in their National Parks. This makes photography much more challenging, but quite rewarding when one gets "the shot."
Superb episode waiting for hummingbirds here. Btw one suggestion, in photo of the week, you used to do show before and after versions. Can you please include that
I do when we do major edits, here I thought it didn’t make that much of a change
I did, absolutely enjoyed it. 2 times in Costa Rica ...
Fun!
awesome!
I have been experimenting with using faster shorter lenses like a 50 mm f1.8 or a 135 mm f2.8. I set the camera on a tripod and fire the camera remotely.
Best photo shoot
Great video as per. Question for you both, do either of you record sightings of birds you get i.e on ebird or similar?
I don’t
Thank you for a great show.
Thanks so much for featuring my photo! I will surely make the adjustments that you have suggested.
Great photo!
Great video guys 🙂👍
We have Hummer feeders all around the house, and have Hummers year round.
I've shot them at anywhere from 1/10,000th with wings frozen right to the tips, to 1/80th, where the body and eye were still sharp, but the wings were completely blurred.
In the end, I have come back to about 1/600th to 1/800th, to show enough wing blur that they appear natural, or should I say, to approximate what my eyes actually see when I'm watching them hover.
Also, it's easy to get enough natural light for these kinds of shutter speeds.
Just my personal preference though 🙂
Excellent episode with so much good information.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Jan & Glenn, thanks a lot for another great show full of awesome birds !
When shooting hummingbirds with the R5, do you use electronic shutter to get higher fps, or rather EFCS to avoid rolling shutter ?
I think you are better with EFCS. Too much rolling shutter with electronic. Hopefully R52 solves that!
@@GlennBartley Thanks for the advice Glenn !!
I recently picked up a Smallrig battery, to be able to charge it from a powerbank once the EFCS fps slows down when the battery drops below about halfway.
The R5ii looks like a dream, but if we'd want to visit Costa Rica next year the R5ii will have to wait .. and when it soon will be followed by an R7ii with stacked sensor, CFxB card and ISO wheel .. then that might even be a better option for birding ;-)
Thank you so much for the positive feedback, I feel flattered. Meaning a lot to me coming from you, I learned a ton from you guys.
We have to work on my Name tho, Glenn 😉.
Cheers, Kai
Hehe! It’s a great shot!
Fantastic episode as always - wish we had some hummingbirds here in South Asia too! And thanks for featuring my photo - the Black throated bush tit - it was a natural shot from a forest area! But appreciate the feedback - something I will work on!
Great image, well done!
We have 1 hummingbird in my part of the USA, Ohio. The Ruby throated. They are pretty easy to get to your backyard feeders, and I try to get them to my backyard flowers with limited success. I have the most success at local arboretums with a variety of flowers. It’s a fun way to spend the afternoon!
Glenn’s book is amazing. There is no trip to Costa Rica in my future, but it’s nice to see these amazing diverse types of hummingbirds! I don’t belong to any specific religion, but seeing all the wonderful diversity in nature makes me think.. God does really good work! Happy shooting.
Glad you enjoyed the book!
Either that are the Aliens have a really good Lab for creating stuff. I also live in the USA and when you stated only 1 type of Hummingbird, I was kind of surprised, we have the same main Hummer but supposedly 11 others that fly through during migration. Have you tried the Milkweed or Zinnia(Early Bird), I have ZERO feeders on my current property while my nextdoor neighbor has several. But the last several years I noticed a few feeding on those 2 plants I mentioned during the normal season almost daily.
谢谢两位，分享了非常好的鸟类拍摄经验!
Always enjoy the show! I am full of questions today... Jan does your Master Class cover your color correction methods? In your image of the month section you often mention color casts... which I must admit, I don't always notice. I already own and daily use your prosets. Wondering if you have a bundle price for the Master Class and brush pack? I have DxO PureRaw3, but have not yet upgraded to PureRaw4. I also have Topaz and (of course) Adobe Enhance. So wondering if the DxO PureRaw 4 upgrade will make a difference. I find that I can get very different results from the three different products. Thanks so much for your time and opinions.
Thanks.....
I got a few decent images of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds a few years ago. I hope to get a better one now with my mirrorless setup.
EDIT: that swallow does appear to be a Golden Swallow. Other than a slight copper tint on some of the wing feathers, there's no hint of gold on it. 🤷🏿♂️
BTW Great Episode!!
The swallow could be a tree swallow.
I have A9iii and six feeders so far only two have shown up.😂
Hi, I'm bit confused. Isn't there hummingbirds in Asia too?
No there are not. Just sunbirds.
I don't understand why this is even possible, "Hummingbirds are only found in the Western Hemisphere. Their locus of diversity is the Andes mountains in South America, there are also some that breed in North America and in the Caribbean. They are absent from everywhere else on Earth, including all of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/Oceania, and Antarctica."
I wonder if they were elsewhere but somehow went extinct. It's beyond insane that these birds are only found in the Americas. INSANE! One would think that folks would brought them over from other parts of the World and they spread.
There are some really old ancestors of hummingbirds in Germany if you can believe it. Many millions of years ago though...
"One would think that folks would brought them over from other parts of the World and they spread." Right?? I must say iam as baffled as you my friend....
I presume they're very dependent on certain plants to feed on. many of them are very specialised with their beaks for instance. So there may not be great for sources elsewhere or they'd die before they adapt
@@jan_wegener
AUDUBON MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004
Banding Hummingbirds to Solve their Mysterious Ways
"The rufous hummingbird, however, is of particular concern. Some of these hummers travel about 6,000 miles round-trip between the forests of central Mexico and coastal Alaska each year measured in body lengths, it’s the longest migration of any bird in North America. According to the Breeding Bird Survey, conducted annually by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Canadian Wildlife Service, from 1966 to 2002 the species has experienced a decline of 2.7 percent per year across its range.
To refuel for extended migrations, hummingbirds require stopovers in reliably nectar-rich habitat. But these areas are disappearing, not just in Mexico and Central America but throughout the United States. “As the birds move south, their habitat becomes more and more degraded. They waste a lot of time looking in flowers that aren’t going to provide them with any reward in food or calories,” says Grantham. Prime habitat all along their migration routes is being chewed up by everything from suburban sprawl and pesticides to invasive species and chip mills."
Most grueling part of video creation is the mentioned 1 hour of editing for 1 minute content. It is worth it, but damn if its painful at times when you wish you were taking more photos/videos instead.
Absolutely