We have a number of nocturnal visitors to our garden and surrounding streets, namely foxes and badgers.  Last night was the first time I’ve managed to photograph one and get an image worth sharing.  Getting this photo has not been a quick task…

It’s taken me, on and off, about 18 months to get to this point.  Possibly a bit longer, I’ve forgotten.  I’ll not bore you with the details of all the failures but I’ve been trying to camera trap with a DSLR setup.  This image was taken with a setup consisting of a DSLR in a waterproof and camouflaged cover, two flashguns similarly housed and an infrared camera trigger.  All these bits being connected together with wireless transceivers.  I’ve built all this using various items I’ve bought off the shelf and adapted in various ways; a ‘mashup’.  That’s the easy bit.  Working out where the animals go, how they are likely to behave and exactly where you frame the camera and set the focus point, model lighting and exposure is quite a bit harder.  I’ve lots of photos and videos taken on a ‘trailcam’ that have shown the way.  

Through this journey, I’ve come to the conclusion that camera trapping is one of the most challenging forms of wildlife photography.  Just because you don’t press the shutter, doesn’t mean you haven’t conceived, planned and managed every aspect of the photo.  And the surprise when you find an image on the card the next morning is very rewarding.  At last.

Setup:  Nikon D90 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens manually pre-focussed. Manual exposure ISO 200, 1/200s (flash sync speed) f/8.  Camera covered in a waterproof camera and lens cover from Wildlife Watching Supplies with an adapted clear protection filter and lens hood to cover the front element from rain.  Lighting: two Nikon SB-28 speed lights placed off camera and set on manual mode with lighting modelled to suit.  In this case, main flash was set at 1/8 power and secondary fill at 1/64.  Each flash (with it’s wireless trigger) was housed in a camouflaged waterproof box made from a ‘tupperware’ type food box.  The trigger was a Camtraptions passive IR trigger set to take 3 frames per trigger.  This is a relatively new device and is really neat and powerful.  Connections: the trigger was attached to a Yongnuo RF-603N II transceiver that I modified to take the output from the trigger and transmit the shutter signal to the camera.  It was also modified to take power from additional AA batteries and the unit and batteries were housed in a small water-resistant housing attached to the trigger unit.  The camera and two flashes were also connected using the same Yongnuo transceivers (unmodified) but with the additional AA battery packs.  Thus, apart from the two short wires between trigger and its transmitter and the camera and its transceiver, this is a completely wireless setup giving great freedom on positioning each component.