Steve Hamilton Photography of Western Massachusetts

Steve Hamilton Photography of Western Massachusetts World-traveling photographer with over thirty years of photography experience. Services include portraiture of people and pets.

Special interests include wildlife, with an emphasis on birds.

Colombia has more hummingbird species than any other county. There are between 165-170 species found within Colombia.Bo...
09/05/2026

Colombia has more hummingbird species than any other county. There are between 165-170 species found within Colombia.

Booted Racket-tail Hummingbird

This tiny forest sprite is found at middle elevations in Andean cloud forest, from around 1,000–2,200 m. The male is one of the most distinctive hummingbirds with his long tail rackets and prominent white or orange leg puffs. Females can be identified by their white underparts with variable amounts of spotting, short straight bill, leg puffs, and tiny size.

Photographed in Colombia on a photo tour guided by Neotropic Photo Tours. March 9, 2022.

Saffron-crowned Tanager - March 2022Small tanager found in Andean subtropical zone from Venezuela to Bolivia. Mostly blu...
09/03/2026

Saffron-crowned Tanager - March 2022

Small tanager found in Andean subtropical zone from Venezuela to Bolivia. Mostly bluish-green with darker wings and streaked back. Head is mostly bright yellow or orange with small black mask, throat, and nape. Buffy undertail coverts and vent only visible at some angles. Sexes alike. A fairly common member of mixed flocks from around 1,200–2,400 m, in cloud forest and edges.

Photographed on a photo tour guided by Neotropic Photo Tours. March 9, 2022

Standing in a spotlight among the dark forest this Chestnut Wood-Quail looks skyward.This chickenlike bird is bright ruf...
08/30/2026

Standing in a spotlight among the dark forest this Chestnut Wood-Quail looks skyward.

This chickenlike bird is bright rufous on the face and underparts and brown above. Female similar to male but rufous more restricted to the upper breast with contrasting gray belly. Also note slight crest, stout bill, and some bare gray skin around the eye. Uncommon in cloud forest of western Colombia. Shy and difficult to see; stays in small groups on the forest floor and rarely comes out in the open.

Photographed on a photo tour guided by Neotropic Photo Tours. March 8, 2022

Another beautiful tanager we found in Colombia in 2022.Rufous-throated TanagerDistinctive small tanager with mostly blac...
08/30/2026

Another beautiful tanager we found in Colombia in 2022.

Rufous-throated Tanager

Distinctive small tanager with mostly black head, orange throat, and bold black spotting on underparts. Upperparts are dark with a scaled look. A foothill species, occurring from around 600–1,500 m on the west slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador. Pairs or small groups forage with mixed-species flocks, in the middle to upper levels of forest and edge.

Photographed on a tour in Colombia guided by Neotropic Photo Tours. March 7, 2022

Star Trails at Plainfield Pond During a Near Full MoonThis image, created using StarStaX software, combines 88 images ca...
08/29/2026

Star Trails at Plainfield Pond During a Near Full Moon

This image, created using StarStaX software, combines 88 images captured between 10:26 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. on August 28, 2026. Shooting at f/8 and a nearly full moon eliminates many of the fainter stars, resulting in fewer trails.

Plainfield Pond - Plainfield, MA
Canon R5 w/ RF20mm f/1.4 VCM
88 x 25s, f/8 @ ISO 400

/1.4VCM

Tired of the night sky pictures? How about a breathtaking tanager from Colombia? I’m thrilled that I’ll be returning to ...
08/28/2026

Tired of the night sky pictures? How about a breathtaking tanager from Colombia? I’m thrilled that I’ll be returning to Colombia in November. This handsome bird was captured in March 2022.

Multicolored Tanager - one of several endemic species we saw.

Small stunning tanager with unbelievable color pattern: electric cerulean breast and flanks, black belly, green nape and wings, creamy back, golden face and throat, and black and chestnut ear patch. Sexes similar; females and young birds look duller than males. Uncommon in subtropical forests in the western and central Andes of Colombia.

Photographed on a photo tour guided by Neotropic Photo Tours. March 6, 2022

Milky Way Panorama at Arunah HillI tried posting this image the other day, but FB said the file was too large, but then ...
08/27/2026

Milky Way Panorama at Arunah Hill

I tried posting this image the other day, but FB said the file was too large, but then it also rejected the resized image. This is a screen capture.

This image was created with 20 vertical images merged in Lightroom Classic. I closed out the satellites and the one plane that was originally captured. Left side is North and right side is South. Can you find the Andromeda Galaxy?

Arunah Hill - Cummington, MA
Canon R5 w/ RF20mm f/1.4 VCM
ISO 2,500, f/1.8 @ 8 seconds
8-13-26

/1.4VCM

Star Trails at Plainfield PondThis image, created using StarStaX software, combines approximately 225 images captured be...
08/21/2026

Star Trails at Plainfield Pond

This image, created using StarStaX software, combines approximately 225 images captured between 10:22 p.m. and 11:47 p.m. on August 18, 2026. However, there are a few issues with the image. I’m not proficient in Photoshop, so I couldn’t correct the image. Consequently, I excluded some frames where passing vehicles illuminated the tree.

Plainfield Pond - Plainfield, MA
Canon R5 w/ RF20mm f1.4 VCM

/1.4VCM

Did anyone else notice this early this morning? This series of photographs was taken early this morning, on August 19th,...
08/20/2026

Did anyone else notice this early this morning? This series of photographs was taken early this morning, on August 19th, between 12:21:28 and 12:22:33 am. I believe it was space debris burning up. The brighter flash and burning lasted for 20 to 25 seconds or more. These photographs were taken with a 10-second exposure.

Plainfield Pond - Plainfield, MA
August 19, 2026

/1.4VCM

If you follow space weather or astrophotographers you may have seen similar images already. I have been seeing so many ...
08/17/2026

If you follow space weather or astrophotographers you may have seen similar images already. I have been seeing so many posts today of the Space X Falcon 9 rocket launch that occurred yesterday at 9:12pm. These images were taken about 2 hours after the launch when, after deployment of the target load (satellites in this case), any remaining propellant is vented. Ultimately, the non-reusable parts plunge back into Earth's atmosphere and burn up and any surviving fragments fall into marine environments.

This was quite the sight. The zoologist in me thinks the first few frames look like a jellyfish or net-casting spiders. What do you think it looks like?

Plainfield Pond - Plainfield, MA
8-15-26 10:59pm - 11:04pm

/1.4VCM

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Pittsfield, MA

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