Yuma Myotis

Hi Charlie,

Another outstanding bat image - well done. There's no doubt that the system you use to capture these images is well thought-out and produces stellar images (apparently on a very regular basis). One question: what's the "hit-ratio" on the set-up? Meaning - are many images out-of-focus and do you get many false triggerings (I do on my trail cams)?

Cheers...

Brad

Hi Brad, Nice of you to kick this off....
I photographed this a few days ago. I took about 400 shots throughout the evening and about 75 of them were keepers. This means no clipped wings, out of focus shots, butt shots, etc.... I think that's pretty good. I would say that I end up with 25 images in a night that are stellar.. Once the Bats start coming in I always stop and check the first few photos and adjust iso and depth of field (f stop), I'm shooting between f16 and f22. Also I want see where the bats are drinking and adjust the aim and the angle of view. Usually I shoot at around 135mm, but this was a little wider as I was getting the bats pretty much in the center of the shot but they were a little small in the frame. So 155mm lets me fill the frame and get that high definition. Also, when the bats break the beam, there is a small camera lag. It calculates to about 3 inches of distance past the beam, so I adjust focus for that spot. Anyway, once things are dialed in I get a lot of keepers.

The trigger that I use has a sensitivity adjustment so that mosquitoes won't set it off. That pretty much eliminates false triggerings. I have some neat shots of Crane Flies and Sphinx Moths that are also cool. You don't want to adjust too much or you won't get these.

A few observations that help make this possible:

- Bats will come to the same spot (or very close) most of the time in a small pond.
- They don't seem to care at all about the flash. The same Bat will come to drink over and over within seconds.
- They don't seem to mind if I am sitting in a chair five feet away from the camera.
- You can use wood lath, dead branches... or whatever is handy to guide where they drink. Cover the areas over the water in the area where you don't want them to go and they will go to your spot. If the top of your pond is covered in algae, clear a small spot 3 or 4 feet across and that is where they'll drink.

I'm working on adjusting the beam location so that I get more air shots (like this one) and fewer drinking shots. It's a little trickier, but I'm having some success.

I'm going out again tonight. My goal is to post as many Bats as there are Bears here....

Hey Charlie,

GREAT info - thanks for taking the time to explain it. I may come back to you (offline) for some more details - I have a small pond right in front of my house that has bats fly in front of it nightly and I can think of a few other applications of the system...

Cheers...

Brad

Another fabulous shot, Charlie! And, thank you for that detailed description about how you go about making such shots.

Awesome love the open mouth and sharp details.

This one is top shelf, Charlie!

Amazing piece of photography, keep coming back for another look.

Cheers Keith.