Madera Canyon, AZ
One aspect I really enjoy about photography is problem solving. Many times on assignments things don’t go as planned, and you need to come up with plan B, C and D. On a recent shoot to photograph hummingbirds in Arizona, I encountered a different kind of problem.
We were photographing hummingbirds on white backgrounds using speed lights to freeze the action. I was using 3-7 frame multiple exposures to capture the birds in different positions during flight as they approached the feeder. But an interesting thing happened. Some hummingbirds barely moved position as they hovered near the feeder. This resulted in multiple frames with the bird blended on top of itself. I wanted the hummingbird in a new position in each frame. What to do?
Since the background was uniform white, I had another option. Instead of waiting on the bird to move position, I moved my camera slightly between frames, which put the hummingbird in different positions in the final image. Many multiple exposure images are created on a tripod to keep the background perfectly sharp. But if the background is white seamless, it doesn’t matter if you move your camera since nothing changes in the background. Only the bird is moved in the frame, resulting in clean separation and a nice image. Another technique to have in your bag of tricks to solve photography problems…