Beautiful Macro Photo of a Hummingbird’s Details

Green-Crowned Brilliant Heliodoxa jacula

In the world of macro photography, the speedy hummingbird isn’t the easiest subject. With a little patience, however, you could nail a shot that reveals details you normally can’t see when tracking the bird with your eye.

That’s what photographer Chris Morgan was able to do on a recent vacation in Bosque De Paz, Costa Rica (a 3,000 acre biological reserve).

After being tempted by the birds “to the point of madness,” Morgan slowed things down, got close, and snagged the gorgeous close-up above of a Green-Crowned Brilliant hummingbird posing for a portrait.

Here’s one way to tell if you’ve nailed a macro of a hummingbird: you can see yourself pretty clearly in the bird’s eye.

Green-Crowned Brilliant Heliodoxa jacula

Green-Crowned Brilliant Heliodoxa jacula

Here are a couple of other photos Morgan captured on the same holiday:

Green Violetear - Colibri thalassinus

humming3

Although hummingbirds were plentiful on the reserve, capturing these photographs is quite tricky — in a single hour-long shoot, Morgan snapped nearly a thousand photographs before he landed a few usable images showing the hummingbirds clearly.

Another challenge? The iridescence — it’s so angle specific, that if the bird turns a tiny bit to the left or to the right, the beautiful colors on its plumage can disappear completely.

You can find more of Morgan’s bird photographs over on his Flickr account, and a larger version of the top macro can be found here.

(via Colossal)


Image credits: Photographs by Chris Morgan and used with permission

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