Hummingbird take Flight

I have wanted to create a portrait of a hummingbird mid-flight for some time now. But the difficulties finding a location with enough birds to build a controlled environment around proved difficult.

After getting wind of the flock in Paris, TX, I made a road trip, determined to capture a picture of this speedy bird.

Upon arrival, there were no birds to be seen. Despite that, we built a mobile studio and waited for the air to cool and the bird's hunger to drive them us. Before I knew it, I had dozens of hummingbirds in front of my camera lens.

To freeze the unreal speed of their wings, I used strobes (flashes) with a flash duration of 1/18000th of a second and a shutter speed on my camera of 1/8000th of a second, as well. I utilized my Nikon Z9 with a monstrous 300mm lens attached and photographed the birds over the course of an hour. In addition to freezing the detail of the wings, I also wanted as deep of focus as possible so I shot at an aperture of F16, which allowed for a massive depth of field.

Out of all the shots, this portrait of a bird, compositionally, struck a chord with me. The angulation of his beak, wings, and body felt perfect and true to the hovering and ascending nature of a hummingbird. And the light softly shaping the birds on both edges was perfect.

Shortly after the shoot, I did some basic retouching and tested large format printed proofs to ensure extreme detail held up, and indeed it did. A 40x40 print shows this hummingbird 20x larger than life.

From start to finish, this process illustrates the challenging nature of capturing these creatures in such a clean aesthetic. But regardless of that, my hope is that the final work is breathtaking and allows you to appreciate the creature in way, otherwise not seen or experienced.