Early Inspiration

April 28, 2023

 

One of my early inspirations for hummingbird photography was the book: Hummingbirds, Their Life and Behavior, by Robert and Esther Tyrrell. This volume is the ultimate coffee table book of hummingbird photos. Done with film photography in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Tyrrells had access to the latest stroboscopic lighting technology. In this volume the behavior of the 12 species native to North America (a later volume covers the Caribbean species) are captured in amazing detail feeding on indigenous flora in natural-looking settings. There are aerial battles with birds grabbing bills with talons. When you look at the images and try to consider how they might have been accomplished it gets you to thinking. The Tyrrells never published their techniques, but I suspect that they would go to an area where the species of interest was known to inhabit and erect nets to capture birds. Their photography was likely accomplished inside a shaded enclosure in which the captured bird was turned loose and its behavior could be controlled by use of a perch, flowers, or even other birds. For example, for a hummingbird aerial dog fight: two birds in the enclosure with only one small perch. 

 

They published a single small photo of the Caribbean setup. They used a medium format camera with a lens of relatively short focal length (100mm or so), two or three large flashes a couple of feet from the bird, and perhaps a backlight in some photos. In a presentation at the Field Museum in Chicago in the 1980s, it was stated that the flash durations were 25 microseconds, and this was certainly consistent with the technology available. Harold Edgerton, who ultimately made flash equipment available to the Tyrrells, had published some hummingbird results in National Geographic and other publications that alluded to flash durations of this order. But his images were more technical in nature; Robert Tyrrell was a commercial photographer who was able to create amazing natural looking images of birds feeding on indigenous flora.

 

I came across some of Robert’s early work in the stacks of the California State University at Hayward library. In the 1979 issue of Professional Photographer, Robert announced some initial results in a two page paper containing a single photo and a diagram of his setup. He had a five light setup, with 20-joule strobes strobes, positioned a half a meter or so from the bird. He even used a large mirror to reflect more light back into the scene. At the time he claimed the flashes had a duration of 1/4500 sec, or 250 microseconds, and this was deemed adequate to freeze wing motion. With the unbridled enthusiasm we all have had when achieving a particular milestone or creative moment in photography, Robert proudly displayed a dark and grainy photo in which he apparently disguised a feeder with flower, with a hummingbird frozen in flight. Looking back it seems primitive, but this was film, 1979, and no one had ever done anything like that with commercially available equipment.

 

 


Content:

Does Flash Harm?

COVID Swarm

Early Inspiration

American Southwest

Freezing Flight

Flash Details

Flash Duration Measurements

Practical Considerations

In Practice

Illumination Strategy - Main Light

Illumination Strategy - Background

Illumination Strategy - Back Light

Alternatives - Portable Stop-action Rigs

Perspective

Autofocus

Image Quality

Flash for Perched Birds

Where to shoot, where to stay

Local Flora ID - Agapanthus to Zinnia

Gallery Highlights

Unusual behavior

 

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