Hummingbirds are my favorite type of bird out there. They may even be my spirit animal. There is just something so magical about these birds are they zip around at super high speeds.
They are basically like little fighter jets that zoom around the yard. Especially when there are multiple ones and they are fighting over their turn to drink from the feeders.
For these shots, I was using my Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. My shutter speed was at 1/8000th of a second, which is the fastest speed that my camera will go. At those shutter speeds, it can pretty much stop all movement of the bird's wings, which is super cool cause they beat their wings at around 70 beats per second.
70 beats per second is insanely fast. No wonder they spend most of their time trying to find food at eat because they burn so much energy just existing.
The most that I have seen drinking from my feeders at one time was three of these little birds. Which is super cool cause it makes me want to get at least one more feeder so they don't fight as much and they can all get something to eat.
I really want to get Canon's 400mm f/2.8 lens for these types of shots. The lens is $12,000 though. It is a super expensive lens, but would be worth it to be able to get super close to wildlife. Especially with a 2x extender on it. That would basically turn it into an 800mm lens, which would get me super close to these birds, allowing some incredible detail.
When I get that lens, I am going to be getting more into wildlife photography. There are some pretty cool places near me that have lots of bears, eagles and other wildlife that I could get some really cool shots of without getting too close to them.
I think I will need a newer camera body with that lens as well. My 5D Mark IV is really good for portraits and stuff, but for wildlife and fast sports photography, I am thinking I will need the 1DX Mark III. That camera body is so much faster at focusing and can do a lot more shots per second that mine can. Cameras are getting pretty ridiculous with what they can do.
I hope you enjoyed these pictures of the hummingbirds that visit my yard. It is so fun to take these type of pictures.
