My wife and I took my parents to Butchart Gardens a few weeks ago and I had been struggling with whether to keep my 18-55mm or my 70-200mm on my camera. I know that very few people would consider a 70-200mm 2.8 a ‘walking around a garden’ lens but it really suits my style and I find better photographs with that lens on my camera. I guess it helps with Cartier-Bresson’s dictum on how to make a photo better, “Get closer!” Anyway I kept the 70-200 on and am I ever glad I did. When I got this photo I was taking a closeup of these pink flowers just over to the right and I heard my dad say, “Look a hummingbird.” I swung quickly to my left to see this little bird feeding in the pink camellia? I got several of it with its beak in the flower and its back to me and then it backed out, I kept snapping as it flew away and I was lucky enough to get one as it flew directly in front of the flower. The flower, the plant, and deep blue sky blurred into a pleasing but contextual background because I was at 2.8 and shooting at 200mm. I got lucky.

-Russell Berg