I have just returned from Rancho Naturalista in Costa Rica. It is a delightful place to see and to photograph hummingbirds as well as dozens of other rainforest denizens. We photographed a number of different hummingbird species on our visit and used two approaches to photographing these tiny, lightning fast birds. In the first, we used a 400mm lens with a 1.4X teleconverter and two Profoto A10 flashes mounted on either side of the camera on a tripod. When we used this rig, on the deck at the Rancho, the birds were close to us, just 8 or so feet away. The flash served simply to bring out the color of the birds, not for exposure. The first image above illustrates shooting with the hummingbird flash rig. This is an immature male Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer. Because the rainforest is so far away, it dissolves into color and subtle patterns, creating a perfect background without distractions. It is a portrait that isolates the bird but doesn’t identify where it is. We used the second shooting approach when we ventured off the deck to the nearby Blue Porterweed hedges that serve as home and shelter to some species of hummers that do not visit feeders. The distance to the hummers was two or three times the distance as it was on the deck, so we used a longer lens (600mm with either a 1.4X or 2.0X teleconverter) and no flash. The second image, taken at the hedge, is a female Crowned Woodnymph. It is more of an environmental portrait that shows where that bird lives. The hedge surrounds her and remains a prominent part of the photograph without detracting from her.