Ever since a very special session with a local spiritual reader, hummingbirds have had a very special place in my heart. Debra Doerksen, the reader, mentioned that hummingbirds would become very prominent in my life from that day forward…because hummers represented my dear grandma’s spirit checking in on me.
And wouldn’t you know? Right before stepping into my car to drive over for my reading with Debra, a beautiful hummer came within a few feet of my face, hovering right before my eyes, wings widespread, colourful neck fully exposed, for what seemed like a compact eternity…in a season where it’s rare to even see hummingbirds. After that magical experience, there were non-stop close encounters with my dear Grand-humma. 😉
That’s why I wanted to find a way to capture one of our resident hummers in more of a creative way. Single them out more graphicly, and in a way that was more unexpected to the viewer. So after studying the hummers’ flight patterns for a few weeks, I managed to set up a private outdoor studio experience, complete with a red velvet backdrop hanging in the background, raised studio lighting, and some remote phone trigger action shots that could be taken in stealth from the comforts of my living room chair.
Bird feeder topped with freshly-made sugar-water? Check. Camera aimed and manually focused at just the right distance and angle? Check, check. All I needed to do after that…was wait. But surprisingly, not long after cozying up, my eyes widened and my finger was hardpressed on the trigger for roughly a 10-second spurt (high-speed, silent shutter), where I managed to pull off over 200 stills with hopes of capturing a decent shot or two.
As luck would have it, 3 of those 200+ shots turned out to capture my beloved Grand-humma at her fine-feathery-finest.
Here’s to you, and you and you, Janina.