Little Brown Bats

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 21, 2016162 views11 comments

Here's another bat image from our SE Arizona trip. I thought this one was interesting showing 2 stages of drinking, one going down for the drink and the other bat coming up out of the water after having had a drink.
Canon 5D3 500F4 20 seconds, F22, iso 800, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head, 4 slave flashes triggered by infrared beam

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Patricia Brundage on July 21, 2016 at 8:58 PM

Think its amazing that you captured bats in flight at all, much less two in sharp focus drinking water at night! What a wonderful experience this must have been.

Registered on March 23, 2006, 1111 Posts, 6531 Comments

Comment posted by Jake Alletson on July 21, 2016 at 11:14 PM

Just stunning.

Registered on May 3, 2016, 12 Posts, 163 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Sandor on July 22, 2016 at 10:22 AM

Nate: fabulous work. Great that you've been able to capture these images. Richard

Registered on January 12, 2014, 453 Posts, 1625 Comments

Comment posted by Pete Bengeyfield on July 22, 2016 at 11:10 AM

Wow, what a catch.

Registered on December 2, 2003, 1247 Posts, 3439 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 22, 2016 at 4:33 PM

Another beauty, Nate. This technique produces some really cool images.

devil

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on July 23, 2016 at 10:44 AM

Night shots are difficult for me...and flying bats, plus them drinking water! Superb! What a treat to get this shot! blush

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on July 23, 2016 at 1:48 PM

I can only imagine how difficult this shot must have been shooting in low light with a fast moving subject. On top of that you also framed it nicely. Well done.

Registered on May 28, 2004, 114 Posts, 2890 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on July 23, 2016 at 2:08 PM

Thanks for your comments everyone.
Brian, I am prefocused on an area here and when a bat moves through the infrared beam it automatically triggers the flashes, the cameras are on 20 second continual exposures so once it's set up, the bat kind of takes it's own picture.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on July 24, 2016 at 4:17 PM

Hi Nate,

These shots are fascinating and really beautiful. I totally agree with your comment about how showing 2 stages of drinking is interesting. I did find the previous bat shot you posted more aesthetically pleasing (largely owing to the reflection), but this one is pretty amazing as well.

While I run self-triggering (motion-detecting) trail cameras on my acreage (and love to look at the images they take to see what's around) I personally MUCH prefer to work my cameras while looking through the viewfinder (and not just have the technology trigger the shutter and "create the image"). I am in no way suggesting that setting these kind of shots up isn't a skill in itself (and the resulting images are just INCREDIBLE!), but to me the process is a bit too heavy in technology and too light in photographer! Hope this makes sense (and just expressing an alternate "food for thought" point of view). But the shots - WOW! enlightened

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on July 24, 2016 at 9:32 PM

Another great image, Nate. Fantastic to see two bats in the same frame, both sharp. The drinking pose and water droplets put this over the top. I see some artifacts from the long exposure where the first bat's left wing crosses the other bat.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on July 26, 2016 at 11:02 AM

Great piece of work, Nate, it's something I've always wanted to try and do but never got 'round to it. Seeing these images 'triggers' me again enlightened

Grt, Ingrid.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments