Making Hummingbird Photos In My Backyard

One of the fun things to do every summer is to let the hummingbirds get used to me being in the backyard. They see that I am the one filling the feeder and by the end of the summer they know to come to the window when they want some fresh, chilled food. Letting them get so close to me allows for some nice photos by the end of the summer when they do not care that I am standing a few feet away from them. Yesterday I was basically at the my minimum focusing distance making pictures of the birds. The photo above is one of those that I made yesterday. I had to awkwardly stand on the edge of a step on my deck to get a clean background, but it was worth it in the end.

The End Of The Fun

Soon my hummingbirds will fly south for the winter. With that in mind I have slowly begun to increase the sugar in my solution to give them a little extra for the day when they finally take off and go. Hopefully I can get at least a couple of more portrait sessions in with my birds this year before they take off. My favorite time to make the portraits are on slightly overcast days although some of the photo in this post were made in the rain. Here are a few favorites from my last two portrait sessions with the hummingbirds.