An interesting thread to me as I lived for a few years with a woman who
was a rehabber of sick and injured hummingbirds. From spring to fall, we
would have tiny and medium cages in the 'bird room', larger cages on the
deck and a large aviary in the back yard occupied by eveything from
'beans', featherless newborns the size of coffee beans, to adults.
Fascinating creatures, incredibly fierce and independent. Siblings could
be raised in the same nest, fledge together and share the same cage for
a few days, then boom - the stronger would start terrorizing the weaker
and they had to be separated. Legal sidenote: In California, all
wildlife is legally the property of the State and anyone who has it in
their possesion, esp. including for medical care, must have a licence or
work for a licenced facility.
Photographic content: If I were setting up all this stuff for such an
expedition, I would take test pictures of a dummy bird to test and
adjust exposure and lighting angles/coverages and be sure all the
equipment works properly. Moving the dummy back and forth would also
give a definitive DOF range with your particular setup and any given
f-stop. It's a lot better to know exactly how your setup works and how
to work it smoothly and quickly before using it on live, unpredictable
subjects. As with all artificial lighting, setup can make the difference
not only between even and uneven lighting, but between flat and 3-D
looking lighting. You can't test whether exposure speed is going to stop
the wing motion, but you can do a lot to get experience with the rig and
maximize the chances of good results in the field. Rather than
speculating whether 1/60 with the setup you are going to use will give
ghosting, you could try waving a stick rapidly in front of your setup
and shooting it. A longer stick doesn't have to 'beat' as rapidly as a
2" wing to reach the same speed of movement.
Since you don't plan to use TTL flash and are concerned about ghosting,
you might try an OM2000 for its 1/125 sec. flash sync speed. Of course,
it has the drawback of not supporting a winder or MD.
Moose
Matt BenDaniel wrote:
William,
Thanks. Your advice is appreciated, and my responses are below. However, if you
read the web page by the world-class expert (Paonessa) referenced in my
original message, you'd understand why I chose my approach. I have also seen
similar advice in a hummer book by a another leading hummer photographer
(Rucker).
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