New Set up and New Gear

I have continued with the garden wildlife, Whilst the fox is proving elusive i watched it last night eating seeds that had fallen or been knocked off of the bird feeders so at least i know its coming into the garden, The old branch that i had been using decided to collapse the other night so i have removed it for the time being, Its pretty rotten and a new one needs to be found, I decided to move the set up down the garden a bit, My garden is very small so there i didn't have to move it far, There are a couple of decent sized trees at the edge of the property and i decided to use the base of the tree as a place to shoot, The root doesn't stick up too far so an ideal place to put some food without it being seen in the image, I wanted the animals to find it straight away as the hide was in the place of the old set up and i didn't want them sniffing around the hide, I decided to smear some peanut butter up the tree as it has a strong odour, It worked, I watched an opossum come out of the woods in the farm and after sniffing the air came directly to the set up, I took a couple of shots but it decided to leave, after 30 mins another one came followed shortly after by another, These 2 stayed for 5 minutes before leaving and 10 minutes later a huge opossum came wandering out and had a sniff around, So a good start to a new set up, I used the D300 and 200-400 and once again under estimated the size of these animals and at 200mm i struggled to get them all in including the tail and with 2 there it was impossible so i went for closer images,
I am off to Florida for a couple of weeks next month (cant wait) and have a couple of days shooting manatees under water-my camera housing arrived yesterday and i managed an hour playing with it last night, Its a compromise as a proper one costs upwards of $2500 including ports etc so i got one of these, Basically the most expensive plastic bag in the world, Cumbersome to say the least, You basically have to set your camera up and then just press the shutter button as once its in the bag its almost impossible to change any buttons, So AV and AF will be used and the D3 will become a point and shoot-We will see how it goes-fingers crossed

Dave

Black and White

Still shooting the opossums nightly, They have been great and i have had some fantastic opportunity's as we sometimes get more than one and then you have a chance of interaction , They have no problems at all with the flashguns but if you happen to make a noise in the hide/blind then they are off, I have lots of ideas left and will soon be making a new set up, I though as its a night time thing to see how the images look converted to black and white, So i desaturated some and had a play with the dodge and burn tool, Basically it allows you to selectively lighten or darken areas that you 'paint' over, This was i can literally remove any distractions like the tree in the background and thing the rim light if i so require, Its always good to try new things in photoshop, Its a powerful tool and i probably don't use 3 % of what it can offer, Let me know what you think, Does it work or not, I missed the full moon the other night and am kicking myself as i could have added that to the backlit shots

Dave

What a strange but good day

Yesterday was a strange day, We awoke to snow falling and the ground was already covered-I dont think anybody saw that coming, My wife needed to go to the office so on the way we stopped to pick up the post, As i pulled up at the communal post boxes a flock of birds dropped out of the tree and landed next to the car-waxwings, I had spent some time with them last year when it snowed, This year they were late, I dropped my wife off and rushed back for the camera and went back, They stay around the pool area as there are alot of berry bushes there, Its a matter of being close by and waiting until one bird drops down to feed instantly they all follow and then you can slowly move the car into position, I had only 2 hours to do this and so only managed a few reasonable shots, Nothing like last year which was amazing, By lunchtime the snow had gone and so it was out in the garden to decide on what to do opossum wise, I decided to use an old log that i got last year, Its Y shaped and bent, I stuck the Y through the fence and decided to have the small fir as a backdrop, I cut some plastic and wedged it in the Y to put some food in and then would make a trail of crumbs up to the log and hope the opossum would climb up it, Opossums are excellent climbers, It took a few goes before i was reasonably happy with the set up and only the images if any would tell me if it looked good, I ummed and arred about the flash set up trying to make sure everything would be illuminated, I ended up with a 4 flashgun set up, 3x SB600 and 1x SB900, I am very impressed by the SB600's they are half the price of the SB900 but for this type of work anything else would be overkill, They seem to recycle faster than the SB900 as well, if you shoot too fast the 900 doesnt always fire and needs a couple of seconds to fully charge, Obviously distance has a lot to do with it, Anyway night time comes and i am position, I take a couple of test shots and decide to move 1 flash to better light the background, Then its time to wait, The wait didnt take long, Darkness was around 6pm and by 7pm the opossum was in front of me, It followed the trail of crumb and then had a walk around looking for more, It went and thought that was that but 5 minutes later it returned and went next to the log and had a good sniff of the air, It was very windy but it must have caught the scent as it stood up next to the log and sniffed again, This time there was no hesitation and it slowly walked up the log and sat at the fork of the Y, A quick snap and look at the histogram showed all was well and the face wasnt burnt out so now just a matter of composition and the hope that it would look around every now and then, When viewing the images after i think the fence post to the left is starting to intrude so i will lengthen the Y and move the log out a foot, I am unsure about the fir tree but for now i will keep the set up there, I will use the 600 and 1.4x soon for some head shots but at the moment the 200-400 is proving itself as excellent for the job and very sharp

 Saying a prayer before eating

Dave

Project Opossum

One thing to keep in mind when taking on a project is not to be phased-You have time, So when the 3rd night turned wet and i didn't make it out i didn't panic so i just sat and watched, 1 opossum and 1 fox eating nose to nose-Fantastic, You have to realise that you wont get all the shots you want in a few days/nights and that you will go through lean times, I once went 21 nights without 1 badger image, Enjoy just being there and any images are a bonus and don't panic-IT WILL HAPPEN-you just don't know when,I decided that i needed more control over the composition so the next day i set up my pop up tent next to the fence and decided to use a small fir tree as a prop, That night i set up the 3 flashguns and got into the tent along with the D300 and 200-400, I took a couple of test shots and adjusted the flashguns via the SU-800, I had 7 deer next to the fence at one point and the fox kept coming and going, Eventually an opossum arrived and followed the small trail of food to the fir, At this point i realised that i had under estimated the size of the opossum, I went to zoom back and just touching the lens coat made the opossum look at me, I slowly zoomed back and waited but the opossum was very nervous and before i had a chance to take a shot it was gone, I waited 30 mins and called it a night, Maybe this isnt going to be as easy as i had first thought, I decided to swap the pop up tent for a pop up hide/blind and move it back another 6 feet, The reason for using a pop up tent is that its low and gives a nice perspective, The problem with it is thats it has a built in groundsheet, Great for keeping warm but the slightest movement and it makes a noise, By moving the hide back i could still get a reasonable perspective-not too high, I use a bright garden light powered  from the house and its bright enough to just allow AF and composition, By using flash as my main light i can keep the ISO at its base level-200 for the best IQ, So now to see if it works, Well take a look at the images,The night again was wet but i had time to prep, I covered the flashguns with zip lock freezer bags and strapped a plastic bag around the end of the lens to keep everything dry, The deer came first followed by the fox and then the opossum came and stayed for 20 mins-very relaxed, I managed to zoom in and out and even change from landscape to portrait-very carefully and slowly-without disturbing the animal, The fox arrived at the fence and the opossum run off but 10 mins later a different one arrived for a few minutes before leaving, I have noticed that the opossums have different markings on their ears so easy to I.D, So far so good, I am now in the process of finding new props for future shoots

Dave

And so it begins-Project Opossum

The last couple of nights i have been trying to shoot the Virginia Opossums that come into and around my garden, I have been putting for down for months and have a mix of Opossum and Grey Fox as well as the odd Raccoon feeding there, I have been putting the food just the other side of the dividing fence between my garden and the farm next door, Consistency is the name of the game and even when i am not here i have somebody put food down, I have been putting the food over the fence to get them used to the area without dogs in it, Now i need to start enticing them into the garden and the next step is to make a type of studio in the garden using props like branches and tree stumps and anything else that is photogenic, I have 2 buddlia in the garden and an opossum or fox under that when its in flower will do nicely, I started out with my D3 with a 24-70 poked through the fence, Set to single shot and manual focus, I focused on a leaf that was on the floor and then put the food on and around the leaf, The first night i used 2 flashguns (SB600) just to see the reactions the opossums had to the flash-None, Well nearly none, After a couple of flashes the opossum moved away and then came back, This was great, I was concerned it would flee and not come back for hours, Some animals like badgers can take a while to get used to flash and projects using flash take some patience and sometimes 1 shot a night is it, I used a remote release to trigger the set up and watched from a small window that leads up to my office, At first one opossum came out and started to feed, I had a garden light directed over to that part of the garden so i could clearly see what was going on, Quickly a 2nd opossum joined the first and started to feed with it, I took a shot and then another, Trying to only shoot when their heads were raised, I was surprised when a 3rd opossum came out, I had never seen more than 2, I want the opossums to get used to the flashguns going off as when they have young which they carry on their backs i want them to come to the baited area without concern, After the opossums had gone i bought the camera gear in and checked the images, It would be hit and miss with framing etc, I noticed that some of the images had a good exposure whilst others were blown out on the opossums pale faces, I checked the flashguns and noticed 1 had a slightly different setting in the menu, I changed the settings and decided to add another flash to add more light to the background, So 2nd night and 3 flashguns, The SB900 was up high on a tripod and set at 200mm and full power, I had 1 SB600 set at 50mm and  -1 with the foot screwed to a post, The 2nd SB600 was set at 50mm and full power and set to the right of the set up and positioned low, All the gear-camera and flashguns set to manual for better control, The 2nd night came and 2 opossums appeared but individually, 1 fed and went up a tree and then another came and fed, I also had 4 white tailed deer feeding next to them on some corn i threw out-Not bad for a suburban garden, I put the corn out to attract the deer which would hopefully make the opossums at ease, I ended the 2nd night with around 25 images, Composition is the main problem so the images here are cropped to help with that, Alot of people don't really like the opossums as they can be seen as ugly, I however think they are very cute and will enjoy spending some time with them, I did have a grey fox come to the baited area, It was very shy and fed shortly before moving away and coming back, On its third approach i took a shot, It backed off and sat down,after a while it approached again only to stop as it could see itself on the lens-it left, The foxes are not going to be easy but they are something i really want to shoot and i have the time, Thats the thing with taking on a project, You need to put some time and effort in-what you dont get this year hopefully will come next year, I have plenty of shots in mind so its down to me to mak them into a reality

The set up

 

Dave