We got up in plenty of time to have a normal breakfast in the RV before heading out this morning. We left around 7:20 in the Jeep.

We went to Ash Canyon B&B where we had made arrangements to do setup hummingbird photography. Mary-Jo, the owner, gave us a tour of her property and showed us where we could place our hummingbird setup. We set up at the first location she showed us because there was already a hummingbird feeder there. While setting up, one of our light stands fell over with a PT-04TM wireless flash trigger receiver and my Canon Speedlite 580EX II attached. The flash shoe atop the PT-04TM receiver broke off, so we changed the setup to use two of our Canon flashes as slaves. For some reason, the Canon flashes don't work as master/slaves when attached to the PT-04TM wireless flash trigger receivers. I thought they were working like that before, but I may have only been seeing a reflection from the other flashes going off. So, J got out some duct take to effect a field repair. I hate duct tape! It doesn't stick very well and leaves adhesive residue behind. I squirmed as J first taped the flash foot back to the receiver then taped my mint-condition Canon Speedlite 580EX II to the receiver. The flash made electrical contact with the receiver electronics, so we were good to go. Well, the flash started to droop and lost electrical contact with the receiver electronics, so we used more duct tape to hold it in place, including a big honking piece all down the back of the flash unit over the control buttons and LCD display. I saw the condition and value of my flash diminish by the minute. Did I mention that I hate duct tape?

The good news was that the DIY flash arms that I fabricated yesterday (below left) worked great! They were also essential because the hummingbird feeder was low to the ground and we couldn't have gotten two of the flashes low enough just by using our light stands.


I let J have first crack at the hummingbird set up while I went to the general birding and photography area right by the B&B. There were black-chinned, broad-billed, Costa's, and magnificent hummingbirds, acorn and gila woodpeckers, Scott's orioles, and Audubon's Yellow-Rumped Warbler (above right).

After about an hour, I went back to our hummingbird setup and J said that there was one bird that came in about every 15 minutes and would get sacred off by the flashes. :( I gave it a go, and sure enough, there wasn't much activity. The one sharp image I managed to get for the hour that I was there was with our "sky blue" background. Well, the cloth that we wrapped around the foam board looked like the sky when illuminated properly — all except for the variations in brightness due to creases in the fabric! So, that image was tossed after I saw it on the computer screen back in the RV. :(

Because things were so slow at that location, we moved the setup to another place Mary-Jo recommended. There were more hummingbirds in the area and we were a lot closer to the main feeding area by the B&B. We put our "green tree-leaf" background on the foam board this time. We left the setup unmanned for about an hour to let the hummers get used to it. Then I sat at the setup for an hour, and no hummers came to the feeder! I heard several flying into and out of the trees at my back, so it was a very frustrating time. However, I had plenty of time to eat Clif Bars for lunch unmolested by hummingbirds waiting to have their pictures taken.

I moved the setup back to the first location, and within 10 minutes a magnificent hummingbird came in and I got a tack sharp image of it with its gorget beautifully illuminated. Unfortunately, the wing position wasn't the best and the duct-taped-together flash/receiver unit didn't go off because the duct tape had slipped so the overall illumination of the bird was terrible. Did I mention that I hate duct tape? I added more duct tape to try to hold the flash in place better, then waited for another hummer to come back. The magnificent came to the feeder one more time and flitted around to various odd positions, but I didn't get any shots off. Then nothing came for the next half hour or so. J took over the setup, and no hummers came at all! Probably not a bad thing because the duct-taped flash had drooped while I was gone and it was no longer making electrical contact with the receiver electronics! Did I mention that I hate duct tape? Neither of got any keepers from the hummingbird setups, so our special photography fee was money well spent — he said sarcastically. We packed up the hummingbird setup, and one of the clamps for our DIY flash arms fell apart — the hinge pin came out. :( Just about when everything had been put away, we heard some hummingbirds in the area taunting us!

We returned to the RV around 5:50. I used Goo Gone to remove the duct tape residue from the PT-04TM wireless flash trigger receiver, and all of the duct tape goo came off. Then I used some J-B Weld epoxy to reattach the flash shoe to the receiver body.

We had dinner around 7:00 of leftover grilled chicken tenders, long grain and wild rice, and a Greek salad. J had some Arbor Mist Peach Chardonnay and I had some Charles Shaw Merlot. It was very refreshing to sit and relax over the good dinner after such a frustrating day.

After dinner, I used more Goo Gone to clean off my Canon Speedlite 580EX II. I was able to get all of the duct tape goo off of the body and rear LCD and most of it off the buttons and control dial so it no longer looked like the disaster after we took down the hummingbird setup. I downselected the images I took today first in iView then in Capture One (C1). Then I looked at camera/flash items on eBay to improve our hummingbird setup.