These galleries represent a twenty-year obsession with the “impossible” shot. From the late 90s through the mid-2010s, I dedicated my craft to freezing the chaotic, high-speed world of hummingbirds in flight. Beginning with modified medium-format Hasselblads and custom high-speed flashes, this work evolved alongside digital technology—including a Canon sponsored research program into their early digital sensors.
Despite the shifting gear, my philosophy remained constant: every bird is wild, every shot is manual focus, and every frame is “in-camera.” Captured primarily in my Southern California garden, these images explore the limits of high-speed flash and human reflex. Whether set against a deep void or a brilliant white, these backgrounds are products of pure light physics, sculpted entirely by flash, not post-processing with Photoshop. To me, the thrill was always in the challenge; once technology made the “perfect” shot easy, especially regarding autofocus (AF), the era of these galleries came to a close. These are the records of that chase – one defined by the technical challenge of the capture itself.
