Wildlife Photography across the Water: D3s.raccoon.sb600.

Monday, 23 May 2011

Food Raider PT2

The weekend had flown by, The weather has finally agreed that its summer and 90 degrees and blue skies were the order of the day, It was a very busy weekend for me but i did manage to get a few shots in, I had carried on watching the Raccoon raiding my feeders on both Friday and Saturday night, I had made a few adjustments to the set up to try and get the feeder pole out of the shot, This done i then decided to wait and watch and see how the Raccoon chose to feed-what side and position, After a couple of nights it was obvious that it liked to sit on the left and side so last night i set up again as before-D3s with 200-400 and 2 SB600 flashguns either side of the raccoon, I had a soft-box on the left one but the right one was au naturel, I increased the output from the flashguns as last time they were about 1/2 stop or so dark, 8.20pm and the first raccoon shows and feeds on the dog food left for the fox and then goes, 8.45pm and the fox shows and has a sniff around where the food was and goes, the all quiet until 10-45pm when a raccoon enters the garden and has a sniff around and then comes over and climbs up on the fence and starts to feed on the bird seed, I give it a minute to settle before taking a shot, I had decided to shoot in landscape mode this time and remember last time how far the raccoons tail hung down but once it was totally settled i knew i had not left enough room below, I think i will need to set up a hide and do this properly, The raccoons have no problems at all with flash and do not react in any way to them which is great so you can get in 20+ shots easily before they decide to leave
The raccoon started off feeding with a long stretch and was probably the best shot of the night

100% crop showing some determination

I am pleased to announce that we will have a guest blogger on Wednesday

Dave

Saturday, 21 May 2011

Food Raider

For the last few weeks i have noticed that my bird feeders are emptying very quickly and even if i fill them in the evening they are nearly empty the next morning, A couple of weeks ago i slept with the windows open as it was a nice cool night and was awoken at 3am by a ting.ting.ting noise coming from the garden, I looked out of the window and could see a silhouetted shape of a raccoon, I have watched it regularly since then and its been coming earlier and earlier, So last night i set up my D3s (quiet mode) with the 200-400 on a tripod and had a SB 600 flashgun on each side of the bird feeder, I wanted a black background so did not put any flashguns behind-a simple set up, I wanted to take a test shot so used my mini schnauzer which is a similar colour and adjusted the guns as needed, I did not want to burn out any light areas on the raccoon, I did not have a hide set up so i thought i would use my wireless remote, I set the camera up visualising the raccoon and feeder and hoped it would be about right, And then it was just a matter of waiting, The first signs were at 8.20pm when it came into the garden and checked the areas where i put food out for the fox and then went and started to eat some corn i had put out for the deer that were there earlier, Suddenly the raccoon shot up the nearest tree and after a minute a deer came into view, A couple of minutes later the raccoon descended from the tree and went and fed with the deer, I was amazed, They fed on the corn inched from each other without a problem, I cursed putting the corn out and thought that maybe that would be that, It was gone 11pm when 2 raccoons came back into the garden, One of them climbed the fence and started to feed from the bird feeder whilst the other stayed underneath and fed on anything that fell from the one above, I waited a couple of minutes and then pressed the shutter and with a blinding light-nothing, The raccoons carried on like nothing had happened, I carried on shooting for the next 30 minutes until they left, i quickly went and grabbed the camera etc and bought them indoors and quickly checked the screen, I had not left enough space on the left but apart from that all was good, The exposures were a little dark but not too bad and easily lightened in processing-not bad for the first try and now i can refine things
Every photographer should have an Alfie-better than a grey card

Best shot from the first night

100% crop showing that the DOF was good, I set the camera to manual mode 1/125@F11, I used a Nikon SU800 to control the flashguns and a Hahnel remote release to activate the shutter-from indoors

Dave

Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.