Hummingbird Photography with High Speed Flash Workshop

This Rufus/Allen’s Hummingbird was shot at Setup 1, with a total of about $130 of flash gear, and about $$$$$ of technique!!

Overview

If you want the opportunity to capture tack sharp images of hummingbirds in flight, beautifully exposed, then this is the workshop for you. More importantly, you will not only leave the workshop with a collection of jaw-dropping pictures, but the knowledge of how to do it yourself. This workshop is very much a learning experience as well as a shooting experience, and provides the knowledge to all students on how to create equally fabulous pics themselves, using a modicum of standard flash gear. Many of my students have gone on to produce some stunning hummer images in their own back yards!

Venue

My home in Westlake Village, Southern California. We have a summer population of around 150 hummingbirds, all ready and willing to be photographed. I live on a 3.5 acre property nestled against open space high on the hills of the Conejo Valley. We see a lot of Rufous/Allen’s and Anna’s hummingbirds all year, with seasonal Black-Chinned, Costa’s and Calliope hummers in Summer and Fall.

The Workshop

The workshops are 4 hour sessions, typically beginning mid afternoon with an hour presentation and tutorial, followed by THREE consecutive one hour sessions at each of 3 different setups. These setups may be changed to suit individual requests, with at least a day’s notice prior to the workshop. Each workshop has a maximum of 3 students – this ensures a high population density of hummingbirds at each setup, along with significant 1:1 tutoring time throughout the workshop.

Presentation/Tutorial

I spend time describing hummingbird natural history, best ways of attracting hummingbirds, best hummingbird feeders. I then go into a little background on high speed flash – what it is, when it is necessary, and most importantly, the constraints of using high speed flash. I follow this with descriptions of high speed flash systems, from the exotic, to the ridiculously cheap (just about any flash unit with a manual control can be used to produce high speed flash!). Lastly, we go over the tried and trusted techniques I have developed over shooting hummers for 15 years that students can utilize in their shooting.

Setups

There are various setups available to students, and may be changed (prior to the workshop) to suit individual requests.

Setup 1 is a hummingbird setup using standard, cheap, manual flashes. Typically, I use an assortment of flash units that I have procured from Ebay for $50 each or less. This setup is mandatory, as I use it to demonstrate how fantastic images can be produced with a very low investment.

Setup 2 is a hummingbird setup using Fotronix StopLight SL-80 High Speed Flashes. These flashes were designed in the early 2000′s specifically for hummingbird photography. They have a flash duration of around 1/15000th of a second (~70 microseconds) yet have a Guide Number of around 100 for ISO 100. They produce a beautiful soft light, and enable the student to shoot with a large depth of field – increasing the number of ‘keeper’ images.

Setup 3 will be new for 2011. It will use Paul C. Buff Einstein studio flashes!! These are state-of-the-art, incredible-value-for-money monolight, AC powered flashes that can be set up for high speed flash! I will describe to students some little-known trade secrets on how to configure these flashes for wing-freezing flash durations, at very acceptable and usable power levels. These have become my favored setup.

Setup 4 will use standard, dedicated, TTL hotshoe flashes – in this case, Canon 580EX’s and 580EXII‘s. The Canon flashes operate in much the same way as Nikon Speedlites in this scenario, so if Nikon is your weapon of choice for flashes, don’t be put off – you will learn what you need to know. I will go over the background of all flash types in the tutorial anyway. They can all be used for high speed flash!

Setup 5 will be a natural light setup, where students will sit in a ‘hide’ and shoot not only hummingbirds, but songbirds, and other local residents. Dependent upon requirements, time of day etc, the student can incorporate some fill flash too. They will be instructed in detail on how to achieve this.

Setup 6 will be an advanced version of Setups 1-4. It will contain foliage for an even more natural setting, and perhaps even will enable some shots of hummers feeding from flowers. Please note that the advanced setup will only be available to students who have already completed a Hummingbird photography with High Speed Flash Workshop previously, and are return customers. The reason for this is simple: Hummingbirds are difficult to photograph, because they are small, fast, and elusive. The goal of each students’ first workshop is to learn how to track, focus and shoot hummers with high speed flash, filling the frame as much as possible. It is a technique that has to be developed and practiced. As such, the first workshop setups do not have any props, foliage that could possibly attract the attention of your autofocus system! It only sees the hummingbird in the frame, and gives the student the best possible opportunity of capturing sharply focused pics. Rest assured, these pics will be fabulous. When foliage is introduced, to produce a more natural setting, the flowers and leaves act as ‘magnets’ for your autofocus. Locking onto a fast, tiny bird in amongst all that is very challenging. I would estimate that my own ‘hit rate’ for keepers in an advanced setup is perhaps 1/20th of that for the simpler setup, so be warned!

What Each Student Takes Away:

Students will leave with a number of well exposed images, a hummingbird feeder of my recommendation, a CD with the tutorial presentation, resource list and reference notes, and most important of all, the knowledge and experience to be able to produce great hummer shots themselves.

Important Notes:

As all the birds are wild, I cannot control their behavior. There may be some instances where a particular setup goes ‘quiet’ for an hour, while others may be inundated. I reserve the right, as the tutor, to change people around during the afternoon if a student has insufficient images. If a student does not leave with at least 4 well exposed images of a complete hummingbird, they are welcome to another session, gratis. You may notice that I don’t guarantee focused images – that is something I cannot control, but I will give you all the help you need (via several techniques) to achieve at least a few sharp images. It should be noted that last season I believe the minimum number of ‘keeper’ images by any of my students was over 60….

I supply bottled water and sodas. You are welcome to wander around the lawns of my property, but for insurance reasons, students are only permitted in my office/lab, which is above the garage. It has a full bathroom for bio breaks. I suggest a hat, bug repellent for the occasional mosquito, sunscreen and perhaps something to wear if the temperature plummets, which it can do when the sun goes down.

What Gear to Bring:

You will need a DSLR, memory card(s) and the longest lens(es) you have. If you have teleconverters, bring them too, as well as extension tubes. A 200mm (35mm equivalent) lens is really the minimum focal length I would recommend, as hummingbirds are very, very tiny! The more mega-pixels you have, the more you can crop the final image, but 200mm also offers about the minimum usable working distance for the birds not to get spooked. Make sure you have fresh batteries, as you might be rattling off many frames! You may wish to bring a tripod for using in the hide (or even shooting hummers), though I personally handhold for the hummers. I will provide a Gitzo 410 with an Arca Swiss Monoball for the hide. I also have a Wimberly Sidekick which converts the Monoball into a gimbal head, which is useful for long lenses with tripod collars. If you are to use my tripod, you will have to have an Arca-Swiss type Quick Release plate on your lens or camera. Elsewise, bring your own tripod. (If you don’t have a QR plate, or your own tripod, let me know and I can supply a standard tripod). If students want to try fill flash (using their own flash) for the natural light setup, they are welcome to. I can offer guidance if needed. I may even provide some auxiliary fill flash gear if necessary.

What Gear I Supply:

I supply all flash gear for the high speed flash setups. I supply all the setups themselves, chairs etc. I supply PocketWizard radio slaves for the high speed setups ( I will guide you through how to use these – they are very simple, and provide reliable wireless flash trigger performance). I will provide instruction via presentation on a large computer screen in my lab/office, and then will roam each setup continually to ensure students are prepared to capture great images.

Workshop Dates:

I prefer to have the sessions during the week, however I realize this is not possible for most people. As such, there will be sessions on Tuesday and Sunday evenings to begin with. If a group of 3 students gets together and determines a mutually beneficial alternative date amongst themselves, I can almost certainly accommodate it. Consult the workshop calendar for dates and openings, however do not hesitate to contact me if you have special dates or requirements in mind.

Expected Species:

Year round, we have Anna’s Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) and Allen’s Hummingbirds (Selasphorus sasin). From early Spring, the migratory birds start to come through, and include Black-Chinned, (Archilochus alexandri), Rufous (Rufus) (Selasphorus rufus), Calliope (Stellula calliope) and Costa’s (Calypte costae). One season there was even a male Blue-Throated (Lampornis clemenciae), but he was injured, and obviously way off course. It should be noted that the difference between Rufous and Allen’s hummingbirds is difficult to distinguish in the field. (Coloring has very little to do with hummingbird taxonomy, so ‘green on the back’ does not necessarily make it an Allens!). Of course I cannot promise you will see all of these species, however the Anna’s and Rufous/Allen’s are prevalent.

Weather Issues:

I live in a house which is very high up a hillside and when the wind is really blowing, the hummers tend to stay away. While the really strong winds of the season have (at last) abated, there may be times when it will prevent reasonable shooting. I will let everyone know as soon as is practicable, and we will organize an alternative date. I want everyone to have the best chance at capturing some great images!

Rental:

If you would prefer to use my personal gear for the session, I rent out my 100-400mm (Canon) lens for $45 and my Canon 7D for $45 or $70 for both, per session. You will need to supply your own CF Flash memory card(s).