![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/black-chinned-hummingbird-6419-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-chinned-hummingbird-6419-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nSome bird photographers may see this effect to this degree more often than I do.<\/p>\n
I’ve been sporadically photographing hummingbirds at my trumpet vine for about three weeks now but I’ve only seen one species, Black-chinned, and until recently I had only successfully photographed adult females and a single juvenile. The adult males have been spooky, elusive and downright maddening.<\/p>\n
But five days ago one of the males got careless and allowed me a few perched shots of him. Those photos aren’t very good because he was in deep shade and there was annoying vegetation in the foreground. But the low light and resulting very slow shutter speed allowed me to see something I rarely if ever see to this degree in my photos.<\/p>\n
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1\/500, f\/5.6, ISO. 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was early morning and the light was so low in the shade I only had a shutter speed of 1\/500th of a second, even with my ISO cranked up to 1600. When he turned on his perch I fired off a quick burst. This photo and the following two are sequential without any skips.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/500, f\/5.6, ISO. 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n When he started to turn on his perch he spread his wings and held them there for a split second before whirring his wings, lifting up from his perch and…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/500, f\/5.6, ISO. 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n turning around in a flash.<\/p>\n When this shot was taken his wings were still whirring at or near full speed so at my very slow SS his wings essentially disappeared. All we see of his beating left wing is a few light-colored, blurry, nearly horizontal lines near his shoulder and throat.<\/p>\n Think about it. North American hummingbirds average around 53 wing beats per second and my SS was only 1\/500th of a second, so those wings were doing a lot of traveling while my shutter was open.<\/p>\n Bird photographers who use slower super telephoto lenses than mine may see this effect to this degree more often than I do. But my fast lens, an f\/4, usually allows me oodles of shutter speed, which I need because I have essential tremors<\/a><\/span><\/span> which often causes my hands to shake and because I’m typically looking to take action shots.<\/p>\n Shaky hands and slow shutter speeds aren’t a good mix when you’re trying to photograph action. Or trying to freeze hummingbird wings.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some bird photographers may see this effect to this degree more often than I do. (3 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/black-chinned-hummingbird-6420-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-chinned-hummingbird-6420-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/black-chinned-hummingbird-6421-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-chinned-hummingbird-6421-ron-dudley\\"")
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