Hummingbird photography is challenging but it can also be very rewarding. The challenge is keeping these tiny, fast-flying birds that can change directions instantaneously (hummingbirds are the only species that can fly backwards) in focus in the viewfinder without distractions in the background. We spent a few hours one morning at Rancho Bajo, an area down the road from our lodge where the elusive Snowcap (a Hummingbird without Hummingbird in its name) is often seen. On that day we saw a few female and immature male Snowcaps but not the star of the show, the mature male Snowcap. The hedge of Rabo de Gato (cat’s tail also called blue snakeweed) where the hummers perched and fed, was a busy mass of purple flowers and long stems that made it very difficult to follow the hummers as they worked their way through the criss-crossing stems and buzzedfrom blossom to blossom. When we returned to the same location a couple of days later, I decided to find a flower with an unobstructed background that, if a hummer fed at it, had the potential to make an excellent photograph. I focused on the flower and that gave me a reference point when I moved my lens to other views, always returning to my flower. Moose finally asked me to point out my flower and after that, when he announced hummer locations, Carol’s Flower was the reference point. The female Snowcap often got near it but then would suddenly change directions. Finally, as Moose called out blow by blow movement toward Carol’s Flower, there she was, feeding on my flower! I got several shots before she flew off. It was a good lesson in bird photography, to find a location that will make a good photograph (good background, perch, etc.) and that has the potential for a bird to actually go there. It is a technique I will use again. And, by the way, the mature male Snowcap finally made an appearance and he will appear in this space tomorrow.