HummingBird backdrop improviser?

[NikonDancer]

I have been in love with hummingbird photography for quite a while now, but cannot afford a good backdrop. I have improvised though. Like placing the feeder under a ladder and draping a towel over it, and I have used sheets and such. What would another good backdrop be, and how to set it up. Hummingbirds are generally timid, so I cannot have anything too fancy or big.

 

[Marc-Etienne]

I've recently seen in Outdoor photographers a guy that was simply clamping a piece of cardboard and a wireless flash on each side of the feeder. Seems like he obtained good results. If you don't have to flash, you could easily clamp a reflector to get a nice even result. Cardboard comes in wide range of colours for near to nothing. Don't forget to show us the results!!!

 

[Don Kondra]

A fellow on another forum simply printed a 8 1/2" x 11" shot of a green mottled background and hung it behind the feeder.

Pretty decent results. He also blocked off the three other ports so they would use the one with the backdrop.

Cheers, Don

 

[Derrel]

There have been some very avid amateur hummingbird photographers who use Foam-Cor boards (ie. poster board rectangles) as backgrounds behind feeders. There results are pretty good. Eight years or so ago, there were a bunch of guys on dPreview who all were in to hummingbird photos using flash setups, and they often shared technical and practical tips on their set-ups and methods. Some people favored black backgrounds, others favored colored backdrops.