White-necked Jacobin

Nov 16, 2021

White-necked jacobin (Florisuga mellivor) captured in Costa Rica. This was a very challenging assignment as humming birds flap their wings extremely fast (at about 80 times per second) and they can fly right, left, up, down, backwards, and even upside down! Their plumage needs wrap-around lighting to fully demonstrate it and to photograph their wings sharply requires high-speed flash a flash duration of 1/100,000th of a second. To photograph this beautiful hummingbird I took into the field a complete high-speed flash studio with four flashes being wirelessly triggered. The birds are not disturbed by the flashes as they are very low intensity and of such short duration: indeed they perched on them!

PURPOSE
Personal interest

EQUIPMENT/TECHNIQUE
Nikon D7200, Sigma 15-600mm f5.0-6.3, 1/250th sec at f/16