As a child growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland I saw my first hummingbird at my Grandmother's home in Pleasant Valley.  It was a Ruby-Throated male that was a dazzling green and a throat of rubies, he flew like no other bird I'd ever seen; it was the only native species.  Their brick home had a big backyard with apple, and cherry trees; grapes and raspberries and plums grew easily amid all the many kinds of flowers that flourished there.  Imagine this little geek with glasses right by his Grandma's side, seeing a hummingbird for the first time; I wanted to know everything about hummingbirds.  When it came time to write a paper for class, mine was on hummingbirds, of course.  Accompanying the elementary school report was a pencil copy of a Ruby-Throated  Hummingbird, colored in with Crayola's I did all by myself.  It also seemed impossible to find good photographs of hummingbirds at all; asking if I could take a picture seemed pointless since my Grandfather couldn't.   

     Then decades later I was up on a tall ladder painting the trim on my cabin in the Wind River Canyon, when guess what I saw?  And of course I wanted to photograph them, and with a little encouragement from a few "keys" in my life and many, many thousands of hours and six years of cussing at computers later, I wanted to know last week, "Why do I love Hummingbirds?"  

     Hummingbirds fly like bolts of lightning; glittering emeralds and rubies that light up even a sunny day; they always hum a merry tune, but only to themselves.  Yet, I have learned through sixteen summers now that they do have a simple language and communicate with one another.  For those moments when I'm photographing Hummingbirds now, never do I feel the bursitis in my knees, or the pain in my hands from arthritis; it just seems to magically disappear.  

     Why do I Love Hummingbirds?  Because they make me smile, and so little a thing such as a Hummingbird can make you smile, too.  

This week's photograph was taken last Wednesday with the usual Hummingbird equipment I use from Canon.  The sun was just breaking over the rim of the Wind River Canyon, and damn he's cute.........

Hummingbird, "Over There!" - Wind River Canyon, Wyoming