Anna's Hummingbird

This afternoon I was privileged to spend some quality time photographing one of the most common hummingbirds in the area where I live in Northern California. Anna's Humming birds are anything but common in appearance. The males have a brilliant red head and gorget that they can flash on and off at will. When they look at you and flash it the effect is dazzling. They are like a flying jewel! They aren't very big either with their body being slightly smaller than a ping pong ball and they weigh less than a five cent piece. This one male visited the feeder over and over today giving me ample opportunities to photograph it. If you are interested in learning how to photograph hummingbirds please check out my forthcoming book "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography" on Amazon. There is a whole chapter dedicated on how to photograph hummingbirds. Here is my favorite image from today. It was really hard to choose a best. Even with Lenore helping me we kept changing our minds as to which image was our favorite. God's love and blessings to all, chris http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Backyard-Photography-Chris-Hansen/dp/1937538559 Equipment used Canon 7D Canon 100-400 IS (4) Canon 540 EZ flashes Camera exposure settings Manual mode ISO 100 F Stop 16.0 Shutter Speed 1/200th of a sec.