The funny thing is, I don't even like birds

I'm pretty sure she was posing for me...

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against them, they're just not something I pay a lot of attention to.  Here in the southwestern desert however, birds seem to be the most active daytime creatures and I have to photograph something other than landscapes, right?

Hummingbirds are both easy and difficult to photograph.  The easy part is that they're very territorial and don't seem to be afraid of anything.  So if you have a feeder out or find where one lives you can actually get pretty good access.  Difficult because they're small and quick, so you don't have much time to set up the shot.  You also pretty much have to have a strobe if you want to catch the wings as anything other than a blur.

The above shot is probably the best I've done thus far, but I'm still not completely satisfied with it.  It will be interesting to see what these little backyard sessions develop into.

P1/P65+/120mm@f8, 1/45 sec at ISO 50.  Einstein 640 camera left at 160 w/sec (flash duration about 1/4000 sec)