We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anthony Lujan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Anthony thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I did not set out to write a book. I set out to photograph hummingbirds.

From the beginning, everything revolved around them. Their speed, their colors, the way their sizes varied, and the flowers they depended on all pulled me into their world. My photography became a way to follow hummingbirds across landscapes, from cloud forests to high-altitude valleys, trying to document as many species as possible and understand how each one fits into its environment.

Over time, my focus started to shift. As I searched for these hummingbirds, I learned how their habitats had changed and how some species were already in decline. In areas where they should have been active, their numbers had dropped, and key habitats were shrinking or being altered. Because hummingbirds are so specialized, even small changes to their environment can have a significant impact.

The idea for my book, Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens, grew directly out of those experiences with the birds themselves and a growing awareness that many of these species are at real risk of being lost. Each encounter, or absence, added weight to what I was seeing. These were not just beautiful, elusive species. Many of them were vulnerable and tied to ecosystems under real pressure.

What stood out to me was how little visibility these hummingbirds had outside of scientific research. Despite how extraordinary they are, most people will never see these species, and as a result, they remain largely unknown. That disconnect became the driving force behind the book.

The logic was simple. If people could actually see these hummingbirds, see their detail, their individuality, and the environments they depend on, it would change how they understand them. And as that understanding grows, so does the willingness to care about what happens to them.

Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens became my way of bringing the focus back to the birds themselves, creating a visual record of hummingbirds we are at risk of losing and the fragile ecosystems they depend on. It is a photography-driven nonfiction book that documents some of the world’s most threatened hummingbird species and the conservation work needed to protect them.

What made it feel important was realizing that these hummingbirds lacked a strong visual or narrative presence outside academic work. Nobody of work centered them in a way that combined field photography, species-level focus, and conservation context for a broader audience.

So what started as photographing hummingbirds evolved into documenting them with purpose, creating a record of species that, in some cases, are already declining.

Everything I do continues to come back to that same goal: to keep hummingbirds visible, understood, and valued, not just for their beauty, but for their place in the ecosystems they depend on.

Anthony, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a hummingbird photographer, author, and conservation advocate focused on documenting hummingbird species across the Americas, especially those that are endemic, rare, or under threat.

I came into this work through a deep and ongoing fascination with hummingbirds themselves. What started as an interest in their behavior and diversity quickly turned into a long-term pursuit to photograph and document as many species as possible in their natural habitats. That pursuit has taken me into remote and often challenging environments, where I am not just photographing hummingbirds but also observing how closely they are tied to specific ecosystems.

Over time, that field experience made me more aware of a larger issue. Many of the species I was searching for were not just difficult to find because of geography, but because their habitats are shrinking or changing. That realization shifted my work from purely photographic into something more intentional. It became about documentation, awareness, and ultimately conservation.

Through my books, especially Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens, along with my website and ongoing projects, I create work that combines field photography with species-level context and a clear conservation focus. I aim to make hummingbirds visible in a way that goes beyond aesthetics, showing them as part of fragile ecosystems and highlighting the challenges they face.

One of the main gaps I am addressing is the lack of accessible, visually driven information about hummingbirds at the species level, especially around conservation. Much of the existing information is either highly technical or too general. My work bridges that by combining accurate, research-based context with compelling imagery that helps people connect with these birds in a meaningful way.

What sets my work apart is that it is built on direct field experience across a wide range of habitats and species, with a very specific focus on hummingbirds rather than birds in general. Every image and piece of content comes from time spent in the environments these species depend on, allowing me to present them with a level of detail and authenticity that is difficult to replicate otherwise.

For many readers, Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens is their first real look at some of the world’s most threatened hummingbirds and the conservation efforts surrounding them. What I am most proud of is building a body of work that not only documents hummingbirds but also gives visibility to often-overlooked species. Some of these birds exist in very limited ranges and are rarely seen, yet they play important roles in their ecosystems.

The main thing I want people to understand about my work is that it is not just about photographing hummingbirds. It is about helping people see them more clearly. The more visible and understood these species become, the greater the chance they have of being valued and protected.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell primarily through my own website, as well as on Amazon and Etsy. At this point, it really feels like you have to be in multiple places at once, and that comes with both advantages and challenges.

On one hand, platforms like Amazon and Etsy have built-in audiences. They can drive sales with relatively little effort on my end, especially from people who may not already know my work. That visibility is valuable and often introduces new audiences to my work.

On the other hand, managing multiple platforms can get complicated. Keeping track of inventory, listings, and shipping across different systems takes time and constant attention. Each platform also has its own rules, fees, and structure, which adds another layer of complexity.

That is why my website remains the core of my business. It is where I have full control over how my work is presented, how products are offered, and how I connect with people who are specifically interested in hummingbirds. It also allows me to fully develop my branding in a way that a marketplace like Amazon does not. I like to include personalized thank-you notes and stickers with every order from my website and Etsy, which adds a more personal connection to each purchase.

I also donate a percentage of each sale to hummingbird conservation, so every purchase helps support real work on the ground. Because Amazon and Etsy have the lowest profit margins, sales through my own site offer the strongest opportunity for me to give back and sustain future conservation-focused projects like Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens.

In the end, it is a balance. Marketplaces help with discovery, while my website is where I can create a more complete and intentional experience around my work.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was the idea that you only document what is already recognized as important. For this book, that mindset would have meant leaving out a lot of what matters most.

Early on, it is easy to focus only on well-known or “headline” species. Still, over time, I realized how critical it is to pay attention to everything you encounter, including subspecies and populations that receive little attention. Taxonomy is always evolving, and what is considered a subspecies today could become a full species in the future. If you ignore it because it does not seem important enough in the moment, the chance to include it in a visual and narrative record may be lost. For Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens, that shift in thinking was essential. It pushed me to tell a more complete story, not just a highlight reel.

The other lesson was about letting go of perfection as a requirement for telling a meaningful conservation story. I had to unlearn the idea that every image and every circumstance had to be ideal before it was worth sharing. Many of the hummingbirds in this book live in difficult places and are seen only briefly. Waiting for perfect conditions would mean some of their stories would never be told at all.

Instead, I learned to value honesty and context over perfection. A photograph might not be technically flawless, but if it shows a species few people have ever seen and is paired with accurate information about its status and habitat, it becomes powerful in a different way. The story is not just “here is a beautiful bird,” but “here is a species, here is where it lives, and here is what it is facing.”

That shift is built into every page of Endangered Hummingbirds: Seeing the Crisis Through My Lens; the book is full of species and stories that might have been overlooked if I had stayed focused only on what was already considered important. Both lessons come down to the same idea. Conservation storytelling cannot depend on perfect conditions or pre-approved subjects. You have to recognize the importance of what is in front of you, even when it is overlooked or imperfect, and be willing to tell that story so others can see and care about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anthony-lujan.com
• Instagram: nature.anthony.lujan
• Facebook: anthonylujanphotography
• Twitter: anthonylujan
• Youtube: @anthonylujan

Image Credits

I own all the rights