Nocturnal Wildlife Photography
 

Hi all.

After years of experimenting with trail cams I was never satisfied with the results. I was particularly interested in what goes on in the dark. The trail cams didn't have the image quality and lighting I was looking for. I abandoned the trail cams for a system I put together myself.

I'm new to this system and still struggling, it's a trial and error process (much error), but I thought I'd share some of my results (so far) with any of you good folks that may be interested.



















That's it for now. Hope y'all enjoy.

Nice pics!! Thanks for sharing...

The photos are great. The quailty is much higher than any trail camera.

Actually those are nice pictures.

Nice pics. What kinda setup is it?

Hi constant.

Just so it makes some sense, let's start with a trail camera.

Inside many trail cam housings on the market today you'll find a:
PIR Sensor- Detects motion
Programmable controller- fires the camera and allows for different settings.
Camera
Flash
Batteries

The housing for the "system" is a home made, plywood, box.
Mounted on the front of the box is the PIR sensor.
Inside the box is a:
Programmable controller (The Time Machine by Bryan Mumford)
Camera (Canon 20D)
Flash (Sunpak auto 544)
Batteries (for the stuff in the box)
Outside the box (in various positions, 'cause I don't really know what I'm doing yet) are two battery powered 320w slave strobes.

Basically, it's just a big wooden trail cam with a better PC, better camera, and more lighting.

Very nice!!

wow great photos very clear. belvie you made great progress agenst the trail cams with that clarity.

Trail cam with high end camera & slave flash ?


Have you checked out any of the home brew trail cam sites because I have seen some with about that quality of picture, most using an external slave flash (viv 2800 and other viv).
Nothing with a Canon 20D but some are using 12.1mp cams (Sony W230).

Do you have a link for "The Time Machine by Bryan Mumford" ?

silbowhunter

https://bmumford.securewebsites.com/photo/camctlr.html

The Time Machine is a quality programmable controller with capabilities well beyond my abilities. It is very impressive.

For my next set-up (this week, I hope) I will use dual infrared beam sensors instead of the PIR sensor. The beam sensors are more sensitive and will make it easier to focus the camera more accurately.

Trial and error...trial and error... :biggrin:

Maybe this will make more sense:

In the box.



Front view.



In the field.



Kind of crude looking, I'll be the first to admit.

More Photos
 

Got a few new photos from last week.

Still haven't got the lighting right, but....

Hope y'all enjoy.

The new set-up with the dual IR beam sensors.











A couple more from this morning.

Pulled everything out this morning. They're calling for rain tonight, and we need it. This will be it for a while, I promise.

Later.

Definitely much better quality pics than any trail camera. Only downside is the cost of setting up a good digital SLR and all the extras in the woods. I would never put my Nikon D50 out there. Either way, great pics. Keep them coming.

Hi CG.

"Only downside is the cost of setting up a good digital SLR and all the extras in the woods."

This is (very) private property and I'm responsible for security here. After fourteen years, I (like to) believe my reputation is pretty well established. :wink:

The real concern is rain. It took me long enough to save-up the money for that stuff. Being a person of rather humble financial means, I don't even want the added expense of replacement. I've had a few close calls, but... knock on wood... so far so good. (I did have to dew-proof everything, though)

wow cool pictures really neat to see these guys thanks for sharing.hope you get the lighting nailed down they look pretty good.