Hummingbird and Bromeliad Flower

Finally! In my first post of one of these photos of a pink bromeliad flower I had mentioned how I had seen a hummingbird feeding on the flowers the Sunday before last in the morning. Of course I just had to capture a photo of that and set up my camera and tripod ready to catch the guy next time he came back. Of course he didn't and my Sunday passed by with me spending most of it waiting behind my camera and growing more and more frustrated. I had even taken the two hummingbird feeders from my yard inside the house to no avail. Another week and another weekend of frustration have past. Today I was working from home so set up outside on the patio and put the camera back up. I actually got a few shots this morning but at that time the plant was in deep shade and obviously to eliminate as much blur as possible the exposure had to be very fast. To be able to take a shot in low light and with a very short exposure you have to really crank up the ISO setting. I had it at 800, so the photos are very grainy. But actually I am thinking they look sort of artistic so I am going to print them nonetheless just to see.

Anyhow, late this afternoon when I was almost ready to pack everything up and come inside, I happened to be delayed by a phone call from a friend, and while on the call along came my wily friend and with full sun shining on him and the flower. I quickly excused myself to my friend, looked through the lens, found it just happened to be trained on the exact flower the bird was supping from, and shot! Finally a respectable photo of the elusive character. I hope you like it! I feel it's been worth the wait, and I have a new-found appreciation of the patience required of nature photographers.

If you would like prints of this or any of my photos, please contact me using the link at the very bottom of the page. I can accommodate a range of sizes and papers. This photo would look exceptional on Kodak's metallic paper.

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Canon EOS 20D
1/250 sec at f/5.6

70-300mm lens at 300mm
ISO 200

Pink Bromeliad #4 aechmea fasciata

This beautiful bromeliad is flowering in a pot on my patio at the moment. I guess it must like my garden. I had it sitting under some trees in a pretty shady but bright spot for most of the last year since one of my neighbors moved and gave it to me. Once I saw all the blooms coming I moved it into the sun while it puts on its show. Its common name is urn plant or urn flower, and its botanical name is bromeliad aechmea fasciata. These plants are related to the pineapple, did you know?

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Pink Bromeliad Urn Plant #3

Pink Urn Plant Flower (bromeliad aechmea fasciata)

This is a photo of the flower as it just comes into sight. It's quite amazing how quickly these things grow. One day you see a tiny pink tip at the bottom of the "urn" or "pitcher", and the next thing you know you have something like this poking its head up.

This is actually my favorite of this set in terms of composition and I think it will print really nicely.

Canon EOS 20D
70~300mm lens at 240mm
ISO 200
1/40th sec at f/5.6

Pink Bromeliad Flower #2

Pink Bromeliad ("Urn Plant")

This is how the flower looks soon after it pushes above the top of the "urn" from which it grows. These "urns" or pitchers capture water and the plant actually prefers to take in its water this way rather than from its root system which should be kept relatively dry.

Pink Bromeliad #1

Pink Bromeliad aechmea fasciata

My Sunday started as normal with breakfast on the patio and LA Times in tow. While sitting there I noticed that a humming bird visited the bromeliad which is in full-bloom right now. Well of course I decided I just had to get a photo of the humming bird feeding on the blooms. So I got my gear out and set it up for that magnificent shot. Well, the sun has set, and I spent hours waiting, but do you think that bird would show up again? Of course not! I even took inside the two humming bird feeders I have out there to see if that would make the birds look around for alternate food sources, but that didn't work obviously. The birds that have layed claim as the "owners" of each of the feeders continued to sit at their posts all day long guarding and chasing off interlopers to the feeders which were no longer there! Anyhow, I did take a few shots of the flowers, so at least I have that to show for it. Such a beautiful flower too. A common name for this bromeliad is the "urn flower" which comes from the shape of the leaves that the flowers push up from I would presume. At first the flower is just a tight knot of pink in the shape of a star. Then the blue buds appear and that's what the humming bird was feeding on.

Oh, I forgot to say that the humming bird did finally show up again at the flower at about 7:30pm. By then the light was getting low. I did take a shot with the ISO set to 800, but even at that, the exposure was 1/20 sec and the bird was nothing but a blur. Perhaps next weekend...