I wish I had watched a video like this one from Jan Wegener explaining how to achieve focus in all wildlife photography situations when I started photographing birds and other animals.
He asked where I photographed the hummingbirds and how I did it. He's only 8 years old, but he's already shown some interest in photography. Furthermore, he owns a point-and-shoot camera and understands how difficult it is to photograph wildlife—especially birds.
All the hummingbirds pictures I have been posting lately were taking at a local park, the Crews Lake Wilderness Park. I have been visiting this park every weekend for the last two years. During this period of time I have seen hummingbirds few times and managed to take one or two pictures of them.
But over the past two weeks, I've taken nearly 50 pictures of them, both perched and in flight, and that probably sparked his curiosity.
How did I do it?
As with any other wildlife, the first step is to know where they’ve been seen. There are many online sources where photographers and birders report their sightings. But in this case, I had spotted them a few times myself, so I knew for a fact they were there. The next step was to take note of where I saw them and what plants and flowers were in those areas. I noticed that they were particularly attracted to a flower called by locals Firebush (Hamelia patens). It's a native plant to Florida and other tropical regions, known for its tubular, reddish-orange to yellow flowers, which are very attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies. I spent time, hours, watching when and how often the hummingbirds visit the plants. Taking note of their preferred flowers and approach patterns — they tend to follow routines.
Hummingbirds flap their wings up to 70 times per second, so I used a shutter speed of 1/4000 ~ 1/5000 to freeze motion. For wing blur (artistic effect), you can try around 1/500s to 1/1000s, but that did not work for me because they were moving too fast from one flower to another. Using these fast shutter speed will result in a high ISO (25600) specially if the flowers are located in a shaded area. That means that a good post editing software is needed to clean the noise in these pictures. I used LrC and DXO PureRaw.
I was predicting their flying pattern, pre-focusing in particular flowers, making it easier to focus on the bird approaching that area. Be patient, I spent hours standing quiet without moving to be sure that they got used to my presence. In 3 hours, I managed to take just 10 or so good pictures.
You need to shoot bursts, in my case, using a mechanical shutter mode, from 4 to 12 frame per seconds in my Canon R6. Do not be surprised if you get one or two good pictures in each burst.
Of course, you need a zoom lens for these photos. If the hummingbirds notice you, they for sure will fly away. This is why to be quiet and without moving is that important.
Dear Liam, I know that at just 8 years old, you might not understand all the technical things I’ve mentioned here — and that’s perfectly okay. In time, you’ll learn all of it. The key word is time.
When it comes to photographing wildlife, being patient is essential. Staying quiet is very important. Moving slowly is key. Many animals and birds are territorial, and if you follow these simple rules, they’ll feel safe and return to the places they like. All you have to do is wait — and be ready to press the shutter button.
I was recently watching an interview on YouTube where the conversation began with the first-ever nature photo taken by a professional wildlife photographer. That made me think about which one was my own first. Let’s start by saying that the photo below was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD750 — a camera no one seriously interested in wildlife photography would consider buying. That was in 2008!
I had no idea what I was doing — no sense of composition, no understanding of photography at all. It wasn’t until 2015 that I revisited the idea of wildlife photography, this time using a Nikon Coolpix S9700. It was a better camera with a 30x zoom, which I thought would help — though it was still just a point-and-shoot. I still wasn’t editing my photos, and to be honest, I used to think post-processing was a form of cheating. I wasn’t thinking about how to improve the raw image coming out of the camera.
Of course, a point-and-shoot camera with a 30x zoom didn’t meet my expectations. These cameras are meant for travel and casual photography — and while they may be good for that, they’re not suited for wildlife photography. That’s how I ended up getting my first DSLR, the Nikon D5200, and began taking wildlife photography more seriously.
10 years, 4 cameras and more than 80000 pictures later, here is where I'm today.
It’s been a long and winding road — but a deeply rewarding one. Am I a good photographer? I’ll let you be the judge. As for me, I simply see myself as someone still walking that road, camera in hand, always learning, always looking for the light.
And who better to tell us what the most popular camera of the last 19 years is than LensRentals, a company whose business is renting cameras, lenses, and other photography-related accessories?
To me, it is not a big surprise to see the Canon 5D Mark III in the first place. The Canon 5D Mark III struck a perfect balance between performance, image quality, durability, and features — making it a favorite for nearly a decade. Even after newer models like the 5D Mark IV and mirrorless EOS R-series came out, many photographers continued to trust it as a reliable, high-quality camera.
I ran an experiment with ChatGPT to check its logic picking lenses for my next trip. Here is what I asked:
From these lenses, which 2 would you pick to travel with: Canon EF70-200mm L, Canon EF28-80mm L or Tamron 28-300mm?
And here is the response:
For travel, I’d pick the Tamron 28-300mm and the Canon EF 70-200mm L — here's why:
Ideal for travel: One-lens solution covering wide to telephoto.
Lightweight and versatile: You can shoot landscapes, street, portraits, and even some wildlife without switching lenses.
Compact: Compared to carrying multiple L lenses, it’s easier to manage while walking or hiking.
Excellent optical quality: Razor-sharp images, fast focus, great for portraits and distant subjects.
Durability: Built like a tank, perfect for serious travel and challenging weather.
Pairs well with the Tamron: You can use the Tamron most of the time and switch to the 70-200mm when you want top-quality shots, especially for wildlife or compression shots.
Great image quality, but...
Too much overlap with the Tamron’s range.
Less useful on its own unless you're only doing general street and landscape photography — and even then, the Tamron can cover that plus more.
Only take the Tamron 28-300mm. It covers almost everything, and you’ll save space and effort.
If image quality and reliability are more important, and you're okay carrying two lenses:
Tamron 28-300mm + Canon 70-200mm L is a powerful combo.
End of the Response.
As you can see, it makes a lot of sense and the response is technically correct. The Tamron 28-300 while is not that sharp, it's a decent lens that I have used before in some occasions. Here is one of the pictures I took using this lens.
I think that I'll follow ChatGPT advise.
I’ve been a bit busy this week and haven’t had time to post my favorite photo from last weekend—sorry about that! So here it is.
I like this one because of the hummingbird’s pose; it looks as if it was observing me.
Photography allows you to track your progress by comparing photos taken in the past with more recent ones. For example, here’s a picture of a hummingbird I captured back in January 2021.
And here’s a recent photo I took of the same bird.
Back then, I was using a Sony a7R III with a Sigma 100-400mm Contemporary lens. Now I’m using a Canon R6 Mark I paired with a Canon EF 100-400mm L Mk II and a 1.4x extender. With the settings I had on the Sony a7R III, there was no way I could have captured a shot like the one I took with the R6. The shutter speed on the Sony was set to 1/500—fast enough to photograph the bird while it was perched. But if I could go back in time, I would have set the shutter speed to 1/5000, as I did with the R6, to increase the chances of getting a sharp image in case the bird decided to take flight.
Another key difference is the editing software. At the time, I was using CorelDRAW Photo-Paint, whereas now I rely on Adobe Lightroom Classic.
When comparing the two images, the hardware didn’t make as much of a difference as the editing tool—and my experience using it. I never quite mastered Photo-Paint to the point of achieving the results I get now with Lightroom Classic. On the other hand, I have to say that Lightroom Classic feels like the ideal editing tool, at least for me, specially when you use this took with DXO PureRaw for denoising the photo.
Clearly, just four years ago, I didn’t yet have the skills to achieve the level of quality I see in my photos today. It makes me wonder where I’ll be in another four years.
