PhotoNaturalist » Wildlife

How to Photograph Hummingbirds in the Wild

Steve Berardi — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:56:51 +0000

Black-chinned Hummingbird (juvenile female) / Photo by Steve Berardi

Hummingbirds are amazing little birds: they’re the only birds that can fly backwards, and they’re the fastest animal on the planet (if you measure speed in body lengths per second, heh).

They’re fairly easy to photograph if you setup a feeder, but I prefer to photograph them in the wild, since my goal is to photograph truly wild moments. Sometimes that means waiting awhile for a hummingbird to show up at the perfect flower, but your patience pays off when you get that truly wild photo.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve learned so far about photographing hummingbirds in the wild:

Choose a location carefully

When you’re choosing a location to photograph hummingbirds, there’s a few things you should think about: nectar source, background, and light.

Hummingbirds are most attracted to red flowers, so you’ll most likely see them there. But, I’ve also seen plenty of them hanging out around white flowers, yellow ones, and even violet flowers.

You’ll also want to choose a location where there’s lots of places for the hummingbirds to perch with good backgrounds behind those perches (e.g. the background is far away and a nice solid color that contrasts well with the birds). Also keep in mind the background of the flowers, if you’re looking to get a shot of the hummingbird sucking nectar.

Another thing you want to think about is light. Choose a flower or group of perches that are frontlit by the sun. This way you won’t get any harsh shadows and blown highlights in your shots.

Lastly, I want to emphasize how important it is to leave no trace whenever you’re photographing something, so please choose a location where you can sit for awhile and won’t harm the land or soil around you. Don’t sit on top of other plants, or kill vegetation. Your best bet is to choose a nice patch of gravel to sit on, or a patch of dirt where nothing is growing.

It may take awhile to find this perfect place, but with so few wild lands left in our world, I think it’s vital that we protect what’s left, and leave no trace of our presence when we’re taking a photo.

Use a blind to mask your movement

Hummingbirds (and most wildlife) are much more sensitive to movement than they are to sound, so using a blind can help mask your movement while you’re sitting and waiting for hummingbirds to show up and suck nectar from a flower in front of you.

At first, I didn’t really like the idea of using a blind because I like to go on long hikes and couldn’t see myself carrying a huge blind with me. But, then I heard about Kwik Camo (not an affiliate link) from my dad: it’s basically just a camouflage sheet that you throw over yourself, so it’s super light weight. I’ve found that it doesn’t work too well with just the sheet though, so I usually build a tripod out of a few long sticks I find out on the trail and tie them together with a rope I bring. Here’s a photo of how I set it up:

This is the blind that I sat in to get the photo at the beginning of this post.

If you’re lucky enough to have a 600mm lens or longer, then you probably won’t need to worry about a blind. But, if you’re using a 400mm lens like me, then you’ll need to get pretty close to fill the frame with a hummingbird. The blind helps you get that close.

Photograph them when there’s a shortage of flowers

If you’ve ever watched hummingbirds for even just an hour, then you’ll quickly realize how territorial they are. They find a nice group of flowers and stand guard over them, warding off intruding hummingbirds by chasing after them. It’s even been observed that hummingbirds are willing to fight to the death to protect their nectar source.

So, why does this mean you should photograph them when there’s a shortage of flowers?

Well, I’ve noticed that when there’s less flowers around (e.g. in fall and winter), that hummingbirds are significantly more likely to stick to their ground and not get scared away by your presence. They know there’s not a good chance of them finding another patch of flowers, so they’re more willing to stand their ground.

On the other hand, when there’s a big supply of flowers, like in the middle of spring, hummingbirds won’t try to defend their territory as much because they can just move onto another patch of abundant flowers.

Anna's Hummingbird (male) / Photo by Steve Berardi

For example, the photo above of an Anna’s Hummingbird was taken during the winter in the desert–a time and place where flowers are pretty scarce. The only thing that was in bloom was the yellow bladderpod, and the hummingbirds were protecting those flowers fiercely. This particular Anna’s hummingbird was so motivated to stand his ground that he allowed me to get just a few feet away to snap this photo. If there was an abundance of flowers around, he probably would’ve just moved on.

Follow their migration patterns

Many hummingbird species are migratory, so if you’re looking to photograph a certain type of hummingbird, then make sure you check to see where they are throughout the year. And, try to catch them when they’re in the middle of migrating through your area.

Stop and take a look around once in awhile!

If you’re failing to find that perfect place to photograph hummingbirds, then you might want to just stop, sit down, and take a look around for awhile. Don’t even look for hummingbirds necessarily, but just stop and sit and observe the world around you. This will help clear your head and if you’re lucky, hummingbirds will start appearing right before you.

I remember one day when I went hiking in the San Gabriel mountains, I decided to take a rest and sit on a rock by a stream to read some Jack Kerouac for awhile.. and, about ten minutes into reading, I noticed a bunch of hummingbirds taking turns sipping water from the stream! It was one of the most amazing hummingbird moments I’ve seen. And, I wasn’t even looking for them when it happened.

Learn as much as you can about their behavior

With an uncontrollable subject like hummingbirds, it helps to learn about their behavior before trying to photograph them. That way, you can predict what they’ll do next.

I highly recommend picking up a book, like the Peterson Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America. This isn’t like most Peterson guides that just help you ID the subject, but it also contains a ton of information on hummingbird behavior and migration patterns.

Another (easier) way to learn about their behavior is to just sit down and watch them. But, don’t try to photograph them when you’re doing this because you’ll just get distracted. They’re pretty entertaining birds to watch, so find yourself a nice place to sit and enjoy the show!

What did I miss?

Although I’ve spent a lot of time trying to photograph hummingbirds in the wild, I’m by no means an expert and still have a lot to learn, so if you have another suggestion that I missed, please share it with us by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of Southern California.

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When NOT to Use a Battery Grip

Steve Berardi — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:54:34 +0000

The battery grip is a great accessory for an SLR: not only does it allow you to plug in two batteries to your camera, but it also helps give you a much better grip on the camera, making it easier to handle.

But, there’s at least one situation where you should avoid using this great accessory: whenever you’re shooting handheld.

Yeah, yeah.. I know, “always use a tripod.” But, there are times when it’s just not possible to use a tripod, like when you’re trying to photograph birds in flight. In these situations, you’ll likely be changing camera positions pretty quickly.

This might not make sense at first: isn’t the battery grip supposed to help you hold the camera? Well, it certainly does that, but it also adds a significant amount of weight to your camera, which makes it harder to hold still when it’s off a tripod. I never really noticed how much of a difference it makes until I went out photographing hawks in flight with my dad.

My dad doesn’t use battery grips on his cameras, and I never took mine off before, so when I picked up his Canon 50D with a 400mm lens on it, I almost felt like I was holding a feather in comparison to my Canon 5D with a battery grip and metal L-plate attached.

The bottom line with handholding a camera is that the less weight you have in your hands, the more stable you’ll be able to hold that camera (especially if you’re holding it for any length of time). And, as you know, getting sharp photos isn’t just about a still subject, but equally important is a still camera

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How to Photograph Grizzly Bears

Robert Berdan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:41:21 +0000

Grizzly Bear / Photo by Robert Berdan

Note from Steve: Today Iʼm happy to publish our first guest post here at PhotoNaturalist. This post was written by Robert Berdan, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Robert has a lot of experience with photographing mammals (something I pretty much have NO experience with!), so I was pleased to accept his post about photographing grizzly bears. After you finish reading, be sure to check out his great website for more articles and photos!

And, if youʼre also interested in writing a guest post, please feel free to contact me. Thanks!
________

I will never forget the first time I encountered a Grizzly bear on the trail. I was walking with my friend Frank toward Siffleur Falls on the North Saskatchewan river just west of Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.

The grizzly bear raised its large head to get a good look, sniffed and continued moving towards us. I remember saying to my friend, “F- F- F- F- Frank there is a grizzly bear coming towards us!” You are not supposed to stare into the eyes of a bear or run as either might trigger an attack.

We slowly walked backwards and down a slope so the bear could not see us and then we made a dash back to the parking lot as fast as two old farts could go. I was carrying about 50 lbs of camera gear and a tripod, and on this hike neither of us had brought bear spray. Luckily, the parking lot was only about a half mile away. There were several other cars parked in the lot so we called the Park Warden in case he might want to post a warning sign on the trail. He replied, “Oh that old Grizzly, he’s harmless.”

I didn’t get a photo of that Grizzly bear, and I rarely go hiking in the Canadian Rockies without bear spray and a few bear bangers. Bear Spray is reported to be 95% effective in warding off a bear attack, but to work you have to be a few feet from the bear. Bear bangers give off a loud noise and can be deployed at a greater distance, you just need to be careful not to fire them so they land behind the bear or he might come running toward you.

Actually, I love to photograph Grizzly bears from a safe vantage point. Most of the Grizzly bears I have photographed have showed no sign of aggression. Still, the safest way to photograph bears near the road is from your car. I often see Grizzly bears in the Canadian Rockies feeding on dandelions next to the road in the early morning hours.

Another safe way to photograph bears is from a boat. On the west coast within the Great Bear Rainforest located in Northern British Columbia, I have photographed Grizzly bears in remote estuaries from a kayak or zodiac. In these remote locations, the Grizzly bears seem to be indifferent to visitors. In some places I have seen a dozen or so bears together including mothers with cubs. So long as food is plentiful they seem to tolerate other bears and people.

My favorite place to photograph Grizzly bears is next to the Atnarko river near Bella Coola, British Columbia. The river runs next to a road and there are several pullouts near fishing holes where you can park your vehicle and take photographs while the bears feast on spawning salmon in September. Just remember to leave your lunch at home.

The most important elements of success in wildlife photography are location and timing. Other than that you need to have a long lens, a 70-200 mm lens is bare minimum, a 300 to 600 mm lens is best and a teleconverter can often be useful to get greater magnification.

Always have your lens set to its widest aperture (e.g. f/2.8 or f/4) and don’t attach any filters as you need the fastest autofocus and shutter speed you can get.

If the light is low, increase your camera’s ISO speed and try to get a shutter speed of 1\500 second or faster even if you are using a tripod or monopod. When photographing bears, as with most wildlife, try to focus on their eyes and watch for interesting behavior.

Tips for Photographing Grizzly Bears

Use a long lens (at least 200mm) set to its widest aperture (with no filters attached)

Visit places where you will find bears. One way to do this is to join a tour group that specializes in bears, or visit parks and natural areas where they are seen frequently (e.g. Banff National Park in Alberta, Knight Inlet in British Columbia or Denali National Park in Alaska in Autumn).

Use a fast shutter speed (1\500 second or faster) to stop the animalʼs motion and to minimize the time your camera is subject to vibration.

Don’t feed or bait bears, and obey all local regulations regarding their viewing.

In bear country, if you come upon a freshly killed animal, beware and move away quickly.

If you are going to hike in bear country, bring along bear spray, bear bangers, make noise or bring along an air horn and I suggest you read “Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance” by Stephen Herrero.

Finally, I suggest you go hiking with someone you can outrun or that is carrying more gear than you

No matter where you live, if you are interested in wildlife photography, the best place to start is in parks or wilderness areas close to your home. Most natural areas support a wide variety of birds, and small rodents and these fast moving critters can be a challenge to photograph. To photograph animals such as bears, caribou, and deer, travel to locations where they are abundant and learn all you can about the biology of the animals before visiting.

Finally, remember that no photograph is worth endangering your life or that of the animal.

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About the Author: Robert Berdan is a professional nature photographer, biologist and multimedia developer located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Robert uses both Nikon and Canon gear. Read more of his articles at his website, The Canadian Nature Photographer.

How to create intimate portraits of nature

Steve Berardi — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:38:37 +0000

Bigelow's Monkeyflower / Photos by Steve Berardi

Which of the two photos above do you like better?

They were both taken of the same flower, with the same camera settings. The only difference between the two shots is the position of the camera.

I’ll take a wild guess that you like the first one more. And, I think this photo is better because it has more of an intimate and friendly feeling to it.

Now, part of the reason the first photo has this intimate feeling is because the flower is more isolated from its background.

But, what’s more important here is the perspective: the first photo was taken from a position looking directly at the flower (which stood just a few inches high). I was lying down on the ground with the camera on the same level as the flower, almost as if I was seeing eye-to-eye with the flower (if the flower had eyes, hehe).

The second photo was taken from a more elevated position: I was kneeling and looking down on the flower with my camera. When we look down on things, we tend to have a slight feeling of superiority or conquer, and this diminishes that friendly feeling.

I’ve talked about this topic before, as it applies to photographing wildlife, but I think it’s just as important for any kind of nature portrait. The position of your camera in relation to your subject (whether it’s above, below, or on the same level), will determine the feeling you portray in your photo.

So, to create that intimate and friendly feeling in your nature portraits, you have to photograph your subject on their level. You have to see them eye-to-eye.

Sometimes this might mean lying down on a bed of sharp rocks and being sore for a couple days, but the rewards are well worth it

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3 things that affect depth of field

Steve Berardi — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:02:23 +0000

Diagram by Jared C. Benedict (used under the CC-Attr-SA license)

I was planning to write about the three things that affect depth of field this week, but by pure coincidence (seriously!), I discovered this great blog post that Brian Auer wrote a few days ago:

Three Ways to Control Depth of Field

I’d highly recommend checking it out. Brian did a nice job of explaining the three things that affect depth of field (aperture, camera to subject distance, and focal length), including some sample images too.

There’s a few things I’d like to add though:

If the f-number is doubled, then the depth of field is also doubled. Note that “doubling” here literally means doubling (e.g. from f/4 to f/8), it does NOT mean one whole stop (e.g. from f/4 to f/5.6).

If the subject distance is doubled, then the depth of field is increased by four times (depth of field is proportional to the subject distance squared).

If the focal length is doubled, then the depth of field is decreased by four times (depth of field is inversely proportional to the focal length squared).

So, if you’re looking for small depth of field (i.e. to help isolate your subject against an out-of-focus background), then the key is to use a small f-number, get close, and use a long focal length lens.

The only place I’ve seen these three things explained so precisely like this, is in Ansel Adams’ wonderful book, The Camera. It’s 195 pages of pure magical goodness, and it’s a book that I constantly reread and go back to. I just wish there was a pocket size edition too

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How three bananas can help improve your wildlife photography skills

Steve Berardi — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:19:10 +0000

One of the hardest parts about photographing wildlife is learning how to use a long lens. There’s a lot of little things you have to get used to with that big lens.

One of those is simply learning how to quickly locate your subject in the viewfinder. With such a long lens (around 400mm or greater), you have such a small field of view that it becomes hard to locate your subject.

Being able to locate your subject quickly is important because you usually only have a second or two to take a shot. This is something I learned pretty quick when I went to photograph hawks with my dad a few weeks ago.

Well, I’ve thought of a little exercise that will help you get used to locating your subjects through that long lens–and it involves three bananas. And, don’t worry: I’m not gonna tell you to use the bananas as bait!

Here’s how the exercise works:

( 1 ) Place the bananas far away from each other in a large room. Here’s an example setup (bananas are circled in red):

( 2 ) Stand where you can see all the bananas in front of or to the side of you.

( 3 ) Randomly pick a banana, and try to find it as quickly as possible through your viewfinder. It’ll also help if you try to focus on the banana too, but the main thing to practice here is simply finding the banana.

( 4 ) Continue to randomly pick and locate the bananas through your viewfinder, until your arms fall off (just kidding: you might want to stop a few minutes before that happens)

Locating subjects through a long lens is mostly about hand-eye coordination, so this exercise will help improve these skills. I’ve been doing this for about 15 minutes a day for the last couple of weeks and have definitely noticed an improvement.

It’s kind of like learning to play the guitar. At first, it’s really hard to move between the strings and hit the one you want, but with a little practice you get used to where those strings are and can instantly locate each one of them.

Of course, you don’t have to use bananas for this exercise. I just used them as an example, and to make the title of this post interesting. You can use any objects you have available. The important part is that you pick them randomly, and that you try to increase your speed in finding them through the viewfinder.

Practicing this kind of stuff at home will help you locate your subject when it really matters: when you’re out on the trail and have just a few seconds to respond. Whether or not you can locate your subject quickly will often determine if you get a shot or not.

What other methods do you have?

If you’ve discovered another method or exercise that helps you quickly locate subjects through a long lens, please share it by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

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Quick tip for getting sharper wildlife photos

Steve Berardi — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:45:40 +0000

Anna's Hummingbird (male) / Photo by Steve Berardi

Getting sharp photos of wildlife is a constant battle. With an uncontrollable and constantly moving subject, you usually end up with a lot more blurry shots than sharp ones.

To increase your chances of getting a sharp shot, you can do things like shoot in JPEG to help you take a lot more photos in a burst.

And, if you’re shooting in JPEG, there’s one more setting you should adjust to make your sharp photos even sharper. It won’t do anything for the blurry shots, but it’ll make those good shots even better.

Increase the sharpness on your picture “styles” or “controls”

They’re called picture “styles” on Canon cameras and picture “controls” on Nikons, but they work pretty much the same way: they’re presets for different types of images and usually include settings for contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, and sharpness.

You can safely adjust these later in post-processing if you’re shooting in RAW, but if you shoot in JPEG, then you need to adjust these on the camera before you snap the photo.

By default, the settings are pretty conservative, so I usually end up setting the sharpness to level 5 on my Canon cameras (the default is 3). I haven’t tried this on a Nikon, but I imagine they also have fairly conservative defaults. Sharpness is the only adjustment I make, I leave the rest at zero.

Shooting in JPEG really only makes sense when you need that fast burst rate, so it’s easy to forget about these picture styles. But, if you perform some tests with your cameras and lenses to find a suitable sharpness level, you can use these styles or controls to get just a little more sharpness

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7 great resources for winter photography

Steve Berardi — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:51:23 +0000

Photo by Steve Berardi

We’re starting to get a good layer of snow on the mountains here in southern California, so I figured now’s a good time to start getting ready for some winter photos.

There are a few unique problems with winter photography because of the bright white snow and cold weather. So, here are a few resources to help you deal with these problems and capture some great natural light this winter season:

#1 – How to get a perfect exposure of a snow-covered landscape

If you try shooting a snowy landscape with autoexposure, then you’ll almost always end up with gray snow in your photos. So, in this post I wrote earlier this year, I suggest a few tips for making sure that snow comes out as it should: white!

#2 – How to fix the “gray snow problem” in Photoshop

If you already have a bunch of winter photos with gray snow, don’t worry: there’s a simple fix with Photoshop. Although this method works great for a lot photos, it’s still best to master the exposure when you take the shot so you get a less noisy photo.

#3 – How snow can help you get better bird photos

Another great thing about snow is the unique lighting conditions it creates. Reflective snow cover can actually help you get a better exposure with bird photographs, and this article written by my dad shows how.

#4 – Tips for keeping your gear safe in the winter

This great article by Ron Niebrugge explains how to handle your camera in the winter to prevent your batteries from running out too soon or from condensation gathering on your lens. He also has a few great tips on how to use your tripod in the snow.

#5 – Tips for taking photos in the winter

This article by Andre Gunther has some great tips for actually taking photos in the winter. He talks about some of the unique lighting conditions you’ll find (like the sun being much lower on the horizon), and the need for a polarizing filter to reduce glare off the snow.

#6 – Gallery of inspiring winter photographs

One of my favorite things to do for inspiration is browse Flickr photographs. It’s a great way to see the world through another person’s eyes and get new perspectives on a landscape or specific subject. So, I created this gallery of some of my favorite winter photos that I’ve found on Flickr.

Please note that none of these are my photographs, but Flickr just recently created a cool “gallery” tool where you can create a page of your favorite photos

#7 – Tips for hiking in the winter

Just cause it’s freezing out and there’s snow on the ground that doesn’t mean you have to stay away from the trails! This site has some great tips for hiking in the winter, how to dress, and some great information on snowshoeing (something I’m planning to get into this winter season, woohoo!!).

Do you have a favorite tip or resource for winter photography?

If you have a great tip for taking photos in the winter, please share it by leaving a comment below!

Good luck capturing some great winter scenes, and stay warm!

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How to use the “special” RGB Histogram

Steve Berardi — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:06:19 +0000

A few weeks ago, I explained how to use the histogram to get a better exposure. And although the default histogram will give you a general idea of an image’s exposure, there’s actually a special histogram that’ll tell you a lot more: the RGB histogram.

Here’s how it works:

If you understand the regular histogram, then the RGB histogram is simple: it shows you the histogram of each individual color channel (red, green, and blue).

The bad thing about the regular histogram is that it lumps all these color channels together, making it hard for you to see if you’re underexposing or overexposing a specific color channel. And, on some cameras, I’ve heard that the regular histogram only shows you the green channel.

So, the RGB histogram is similar to the regular histogram, but now you have a separate histogram for each color channel.

The goal is the same: you don’t want to underexpose or overexpose any of the color channels, so look at each channel’s histogram to ensure the graph isn’t bunching up to one side.

It’s important to note that each color channel’s histogram may be drastically different. It really depends on the colors of the photo (and their brilliance). For example, consider the photo below of a Desert Five-Spot (my favorite desert wildflower, btw):

Desert Five-Spot / Photo by Steve Berardi

Here are the corresponding RGB histograms of this image:

Notice how the green channel doesn’t spread all the way to the right? At first, you might think this means the image is underexposed, but remember: this is only the histogram of the green channel.

With the RGB histogram, your goal is not necessarily to get a balanced histogram in each channel, but instead to ensure you’re not losing details in a color channel by underexposing or overexposing.

So, although the green channel doesn’t have many highlights in this image, notice how the blue channel does: its histogram is spread out and nearly touches the right side. The important highlights in this image are in the blue channel, so that’s what I exposed for.

How to enable the RGB histogram on your camera

Although most cameras have the standard histogram, not all have the special RGB one, so you may be out of luck, but check or camera’s manual to make sure and don’t be afraid to do some digging in your camera’s menus or custom functions since it’s not the default setting.

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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains or the Mojave Desert, both located in the beautiful state of California.

3 reasons to photograph wildlife at eye level

Steve Berardi — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:40:45 +0000

Snowy Plover / Photo by Steve Berardi

When you encounter wildlife, it’s pretty easy to get excited, isn’t it? It doesn’t happen often, so when you’re lucky enough, the first thing you’re probably thinking is, “wow, I do not want to scare this thing away!” (well, unless it’s a bear or mountain lion, heh).

In the moment of excitement, it’s easy to forget about camera techniques and just start snapping photos from where you’re standing. But, if you want an intimate, sharp, and isolated portrait of any wildlife subject, you’re gonna have to get down to their eye level to snap the photo, and here are at least three reasons why:

#1 – It makes the image more intimate

A lot of wildlife you encounter will be shorter than you, so you’ll usually be looking down on it. This creates a feeling of conquer or superiority in the image.

Getting down to eye level of the subject helps put you in their world, and get their perspective on things. Suddenly things don’t look so small anymore, do they?

#2 – It makes the image sharper

When you photograph wildlife at eye level, you also help position your camera so the sensor is parallel to the most important plane of your subject (the eyes and as much of the body as possible).

This helps put all important parts of your subject at the same distance from your sensor, so all those parts will be in sharp focus.

In every photo, there is really only one plane of complete sharpness, so choosing this plane wisely and positioning your camera’s sensor so it’s parallel to this plane is critical to getting sharp photos of wildlife (or wildflowers, butterflies, dragonflies, etc).

#3 – It creates a better background

When you’re photographing wildlife from above, the background will usually be the ground or plants immediately behind the subject. This makes it hard to get that nice out of focus background because it’s just too close to the subject.

But, when you get down to eye level, the background will usually be something far away, making it much easier to get a good blurred, out of focus background (i.e. bokeh).

Be prepared to get dirty!

Of course, getting down to eye level isn’t always easy: sometimes it means you’ll have to take the photo while lying down on the ground! Don’t worry, it’s just a little dirt! And, it’s the only way to get intimate, sharp, and isolated portraits of wildlife.