September 5-8, 2013 Arizona Trip – Part I – The BATS!
Stop – Action Bat Photography at Elephant Head, Arizona – September, 2013
Kathy Adams Clark, professional photographer in the Houston area, led a photo tour to southern Arizona in pursuit of some very unique photographic opportunities. Kathy, two other photographers, Hope and Karen, and I spent a few days at Bill Forbes’ Elephant Head Pond photographing birds and bats and whatever else we could find.
While I’ve spent many hours in blinds photographing birds, this was my first opportunity to photograph bats up close and personal. As far as I know, this is the only place to take night photos of bats sipping nectar and dipping into a pond for a drink.
Bill, an electronics wizard, invented a device he calls a Phototrap. It will remotely trip your camera’s shutter when an infrared (IR) beam is interrupted. And when you happen to be at Bill’s place, the critters that are most likely to interrupt that beam at night are bats!
Kathy and Bill helped Hope, Karen and I set up our cameras at two different stations.
The Nectar Sippers – Set Up Under Bill’s Shed
Just before dusk, we all put one of our cameras under Bill’s shed near the hummingbird feeders. The nectar feeding bats that visit the feeders will also visit the flowers that Bill sets up. We added a little gadget to our camera’s hot shoe, framed up the flowers in the viewfinder, focused exactly where Bill tells us to focus and then he set up his magic Phototrap device.
Since both of my “real” cameras were on tripods taking photos, I had to snap this one with my iPhone, but you get the idea…
After dark, we started up our cameras and “our” Phototraps. After checking a few times to make sure all of our settings, framing and focus were correct, we left these cameras overnight to capture images of the nectar bats. When a bat interrupted the IR beam, the beam reflected off of the bat into a receiver. When the receiver detected IR light, it tripped the camera shutter and the little gadget in our cam’s hot shoe would simultaneously fire off a whole host of flashes that Bill and Kathy carefully aimed to light up the bats while minimizing distracting shadows.
The Pond Visitors
We all put our other camera at Bill’s pond where several different species of bats fly low and dip down for a sip of water. Bill lowered a target into the water to use for focusing and framing. Once we framed up our shots and focused, Bill removed the target and we had to be very careful not to move our tripods or touch the focus ring on our lenses. If we changed anything, we would have to put the target back in the water and start over.
Here’s another iPhone shot – The Pond
This works a little differently. At this station, the Phototrap detects interruption of the IR beam, but instead of firing our camera shutters, it fires a very powerful flash that freezes the action. Our cameras are set up on intervalometers to shoot 20 second exposures one shot after another with only 1 second between shots. If a bat (or moth or other creature) happens to trip the beam, we get the image. Sometimes as many as three or more bats will trip the beam during that 20 second exposure time.
Every once in a while, something other than a bat will trip the beam. This is a moth. I’m pretty sure it is the Carolina Sphinx Moth, Manduca sexta, but it could be the Five-spotted Hawk Moth, Manduca quinquemaculata.
I spent some quality time in Photoshop with the next image. I liked it, but the right wing (camera left) was cut off. I copied some of the background from the right side of the photo and blended it in on the left side. Then I recreated the missing wing part. Only his mom and a bat expert will know… and anyone reading this confession.
Bad Shot and Photoshop to the Rescue
