A local wildlife photographer has captured incredible footage of hummingbirds in two B.C. communities.
Photographer and videographer Dr. Christian Sasse shared a video of the captivating dance of hummingbirds on July 11.
"The endeavour required immense patience and careful observation," says the photographer, who shot the footage in Surrey and Kelowna.
One of the standout features of the video is the captivating light passing through the wings of a hummingbird in super slow motion.
Sasse used a high-speed camera that captures images at 1000 and 2000 frames per second. Post processing upscales the footage to 10,000 frames per second at 4K, which is what makes it super slow.
"As far as I am aware, this is the first time illumination has been video recorded through the hummingbirds' wings," Sasse told V.I.A.
He was also able to record the hummingbird's tongue in its natural environment and the unprecedented event of a hummingbird in the act of piercing another.
"This endeavour provides a fresh and unprecedented perspective into the enchanting world of these tiny aviators," he said.
Sasse began filming the captivating video over five years ago but recorded a lot of the footage this summer in the Okanagan.
He said that he has been deeply engrossed in capturing the mesmerizing beauty of hummingbirds through ultra-slow-motion video.
"Waking up early in the morning at 4 a.m. to hummingbirds and seeing the beauty, innovation, and fabulous engineering of nature brings so much happiness in my life that by the time everyone else wakes up, I have already had a beautiful day."
