I decided it would be very cool to get a photograph of a hummingbird. And, indeed, it would be. But the gap between seeing the hummingbird, grabbing the camera, turning the crappy thing on, having it pointed in the right direction is so ridiculously long, that by then the hummingbird is five gardens over.
Apparently nature photography is tricky. Who knew?
Here’s one of my hummingbird shots. (I won’t bore you with all of them):
Notice the glaring absence of said humingbird.
I hereby give up. Stupid hummingbirds. I for one do not welcome our hummingbird overlords. I spit on their gravy.
This has nothing to do with hummingbirds, but did you ever see the amazing book called “For Love of Insects”? It’s well worth getting–it’s got the most extraordinary photos, and also explains lots of stuff about techniques & contraptions they had to set up in order to do that freeze-frame photography of small fast-moving things…
I am full of envy at your landscape! Good luck with the writing, glad to hear it’s going so well.
Thanks, Jenny. I also had some futile attempts at taking photos of the gorgeous and enormous butterflies here. I am now dead curious about how photos of things that will not stay still are taken. I shall definitely check out when we get back to NYC.
Hope all’s well with you, too!
it’s not just nature photography. it’s domestic photography as well. my cat–bred to be photogenic, complacent and to provide blogworthy material–got obscenely cutely into a bag the other day and then got out every time i pulled out my camera. soon as the camera went down, back he’d go into the bag. and you thought those “friends forever” kitten posters were easy to shoot.
last summer Matt spent several hours staking out the hummingbird feeding at the B&B where we spent 4th of july weekend. He did end up with a few pictures — he is very determined. The innkeepers put one of his hummingbird pix on their website: http://www.philopotteryinn.com/gardens.html#
It is extremely bad luck to dis the gods of hummingbirds.
To break the curse you must take a pinch of salt. put it on the belly on someone you love. Lick it off and say “If I had wings would I be stupid enough to wait around for someone to get me in focus?”
Drink a beer and That ought to do.
P