I have wanted to photograph this amazing hummingbird species for some time, and finally had my chance at Guango Lodge in Ecuador this past week. Guango is located on the East slope of the Andes at around 9200 feet, and is home to species not found on the West slope. Joan and Ted Miller - great photographers and wonderful traveling companions - joined me on their first hummingbird trip. We all had a blast and came home with thousands of images of beautiful, feisty, and endlessly fascinating hummingbirds. I'll be posting more images from the trip in the coming days.
I used a 6 flash set up, an artificial background, and lured the bird in with a sugar water feeder.
What a beautiful hummingbird, and I can't imagine how it flys with the size of that beak! I see a very faint dark diagonal shadow on the background right in front of the bird ... that seems to echo the bird. Maybe a shadow caused by a upper/top left flash on a very close background??? I love the tip to tip sharpness, and those tiny hanging feet! Very nice looking!
I don't think I've seen this species before. Thanks for sharing. Great details, lighting, pose and BG. I agree on the diagonal dark band underneath the bird.
Really nice Linda. I like this BG quite a bit. I would like to see the bird a bit further back in the frame (easy to add canvas) and, for me, to take this image to the next level of greatness - it needs a flower in there. But this is one spectacular image to be sure!!
Remarkable, this is the sort of photo that should be in the bird guide books.
Further congratulations on getting all that gear to where you took the shot.
When photographing with multiple flash, the flashes are set at a very low power, so there is significant light fall-off. The background would appear black - an unnatural look since hummingbirds are only active during the day! Therefore, it is necessary to place an artificial background behind the photographic area and it must be lit with additional flashes.
Sword-Billed Hummingbird
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