I must say that this photo was not one that had much luck attached to it. It took a good deal of effort to capture, but was very rewarding.

For the past 15 years, we've had ruby-throated hummingbirds arrive by memorial day and stay through autumn We know that some pair have reproduced, just by the increased activity at our feeders later in the season. Only the males sport the ruby-colored throat and it's very difficult to tell the juveniles from adults in hummingbirds - the most telling sign is the skittishness of the youngest birds.

In the summer of 2010, our next door neighbors happened to spot hummingbirds returning frequently to a King Crimson Norway Maple in their front yard, far from any feeder. We set up an 10 foot ladder and found the tiny nest with two young ones still inside.

I got out my tallest tripod that can get to 8', set the camera and telephoto lens to be pre-focused on the nest and attached a remote triggering mechanism to the camera. While up on the ladder, the adult female would buzz by, but refuse to land at the nest. From the ground, I was able to stand at a distance that allowed the female to land without hesitation, and remotely trigger exposures. It's a fun experience to do this for 20 minutes or so, having no idea what you're getting. Then playing back the exposures to find a few that tell the story. See other images from this sequence here.

Canon EOS 5D, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5/5.6L @400mm, 1/100 sec @f/5.6, spot metering, ISO equiv 400, Majestic 4800 Tripod, Bogen studio pan/tilt head