CAMERA:
Medium format camera
120mm macro lens
Short extension tube
Beam tripper
High speed photography
SETUP:
This high speed stop action photo of a female hummingbird in flight coming in to drink nectar from an iris required two medium sized high speed soft-lights as the only light sourse. A laser trigger was aligned across the inner throat of the iris so the hummingbird coming to drink nectar would beak the beam. A delay module was used to delay the trigger signal long enough for the hummingbird to finish inserting her beak before an electronic cable release tripped the shutter. After everything is setup there's nothing to do but to sit in a lawn chair until your strobes go off and then just re-cock the shutter and take another break.
The exposure was 1/500 sec. at F22 with electronic flash. The ambient exposure would have been 1/8 sec. at F22 which put the ambient light 6 stops down from the flash exposure. This is one of those times where it really is nice having a flash sync speed of 1/500 sec. as the ambient light had no effect on the image.
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