Under Clear Skies

Black-chinned Hummingbird – Luke Tiller

Yesterday was cloudy and overcast, not great for photography in a traditional sense, but there were lots of hummingbirds milling around the feeders so I decided to switch on the patio lights and try use that light to get some snaps of them. After the first shot I realized I wasn’t going to get anything in the way of your standard ‘bird porn’ shot, but had stumbled upon something kind of beautiful in and of itself.

Hummingbird – Luke Tiller

The combination of outdoor lights and flash was creating some really cool images, so I just kept snapping away. I love the etherealness and movement the ghosting of the image captures in the bird. Quite lovely, even if I do say so myself.

Hummingbird – Luke Tiller

Towards the end of shooting the light had improved enough that I was starting to capture more of a ‘standard’ bird photograph, so I gave up. I’m not sure quite how I would recreate the conditions that created these pictures but it was nice to have something so beautiful come out of something essentially going ‘wrong’.