Page 12 - Backyard Bird Photography: How to Attract Birds to Your Home and Create Beautiful Photographs
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Allen’s Hummingbird female with chicks in nest
Eight years later, I received a call from the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society, of
which I served on the board of directors. One of our members had an Allen’s
Hummingbird nest that had been constructed on a hanging mobile on her back patio in
Sherman Oaks, California, and she wanted someone to photograph the female and her
chick. During the next six weeks, I photographed this chick until it fledged, and along with
it a second brood that this hummingbird had, consisting of two chicks. From about one
foot away, I used my 50mm macro lens attached to my 7D camera body, along with a
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT external flash, to get close shots of the hummingbird chicks in
the nest. In order to do this, I climbed up onto a small ladder, held on to the rim of the
mobile with my left hand to stabilize the nest, and held the camera in my right hand and
clicked away, using autofocus on these little birds. While hundreds of shots were out of
focus, I succeeded with a few and the results were very rewarding.