Camera Trapping

Here are a few of my recent camera trap shots. Still no where near perfect but its been a great project so far and im still working on it. 

The Start of a Journey

Recently I have been starting into the world of camera trapping. Its a very challenging aspect of photography and for 6 weeks I have been trying to capture Otters at night on a small river near my home. In 6 weeks I have got 1 image!!!! However its not perfect so I am not showing you. 

I am using an infrared beam system. I set up an invisible beam across a path and anything that crosses the path triggers the camera. A lot easier said than done 

Here are a few of my misfires. American Mink and Brown Rats!

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River Allen

Hello Everyone,

I know its been ages but here is a little update on one of the projects I have been working on. The river Allen is a stunning chalk stream very close to my home in Dorset. I had never really looked in depth at the wildlife there before, but I wanted to start, and I wanted to get to know this amazing waterway in more detail.

I started by putting a stick across the river and waiting. 

It wasn't long before one of my best friends, mr Kingfisher turned up! I went to the hide every morning and slowly started getting to know the birds a bit better. There were two chicks in the area, however it wasn't long before they were kicked out by the parents. They must have only just fledged the nest when I started at the site, so I only saw them for about 5 days before they were gone. 

The next thing I started working on was the underwater life of the River Allen. The river is full of fish, and heaps of other life. I started by placing a GoPro camera onto a rock and just placing it in the river and hoping for the best. Despite the fact its a very hit and miss process some of the results have been quite interesting. 

Lady of the river - Grayling 

Pike 

I have got better at learning the preferred habitats of the different species and I know where best to place the camera now to get better results. 

Pike 

One evening I was filming in the river and something caught my eye flying over the far bank, a Barn Owl!!! I got my stuff and got out of the river and up on to the bridge and watched the owl hunting the meadow on the far side of the bank. Over the next few evenings I spent time waiting and filming the Owl when it made its brief appearances. On one particular evening the conditions where perfect and I was very happy with the results. The image below is only a screen shot from video so not a high res file. 

Barn Owl

I have also filmed Eels is the river Allen. Eels fascinate me as their life history is remarkable. They are born in the Sargasso sea in the Bahamas, then travel across to the UK as tiny 'glass eels'. Once they reach our shores they then travel up our fresh water systems, where they can live in our rivers for up to 20 years! Once they are ready to breed, they TRAVEL BACK TO THE SARGASSO SEA to breed. Its a crazy journey for such a small animal. I felt very privileged to have one in front of my camera.

I have recently uploaded a short film featuring a lot of filming from this project. If you want to have a look, please follow the link bellow. 

"   http://vimeo.com/71697900   "

I hope you like the video and images within this post. I will be updating the blog more now as I am working on a number of projects. The main one being camera trap photography. As soon as I start getting results I will let you know!

Sam 

Barn Owl Project

I have lived in Dorset my entire life and I only saw my first Barn Owl last spring. I think I must have never been looking properly as now I have got my eye in. Im seeing them all the time!

The site that most of my images are taken is about 15 minuets away from my house so that means I can wake up and get there quickly depending on the conditions. I was told by the farmer that they used to have 9 pairs on the farm. I often see 4 individuals in one evening but its getting the images that is proving to be so hard!

They are usually more active in the dawn light than that of the evening. So I try to get there 20 mins before sunrise. This allows me to track down a couple of owls and decide where I am going to set up.

Usually then the owls take to the wing and hunt for a few mins, just as or just after the sun has risen. This is the time I get my shots usually.

My set up, is a canon 7D on a Sigma 120-300mm with a 1.4x converter. This makes it a 420mm f4 which is a good lens for the owls. A 400mm 2.8 would be better however!!!!

For my tripod head, I am using a 'Wimberly Sidekick' and I really cant rave about this enough. It is an awesome piece of kit which I strongly recommend. It allows easy free movement of a heavy lens, inorder to track the owls in flight, and makes the job of keeping the lens steady a joy.

I am pleased with my images in general but I want better. Its going to take time however as many days (like today) I come home empty handed. But I dont mind. Every time I go there I learn something about the Owls and there routine and I like to think that it will eventually work in my favour.

Thanks for viewing and let me know what you think