Hummingbird Cloaking Device: Me

OK. I’m an idiot.
The elusive Hummingbird finally made an appearance at the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden this weekend, and I pretty much blew the photo opportunity.

Turns out he really does love the bed we planted for him, full of Russian Sage, Scarlet Bugler Penstemon and Blue Salvia. There are plenty of treasures in there for the butterflies as well.

I spotted him while taking a break under the shade of the pear trees. And that’s probably the problem…”under the shade”. The Hummingbird was drinking up the Russian Sage in full sun, and I was in full shade. Doh!

I set the camera to shutter-priority to catch his rapid movement, but did not adjust the ISO or Aperture to allow enough light. Amateur! Then I happily snapped a good 50 pictures in rapid-fire succession. Rule #1 ignored; check your shot. I ran to show Maria my prize – and saw only darkness in the viewfinder.

I could have set the camera to Auto. I could have walked out into the sunshine. But no.

Photoshop was created for pretend photographers like me.

In Photoshop I adjusted the levels and tone…and while the image is not what I intended, it is kind of ethereal and seems almost fitting given the bird’s iridescent feathers.

I swear this bird has magical cloaking powers, buzzing around – heard, but unseen all summer – and now this mishap.

He did make a quick return, allowing me to capture just a couple of quick shots…in the sun!

So there you have it. Lesson learned. At least I didn’t forget to put the memory card in.