Photographing Bats

Les E · #1 (**permalink**) 30-05-2009, 06:30 PM

HI There,
Over the last few nights Ive been out with my flashgun and camera in the attempt to image a flying bat.Pipistrelles patrol the farm road track up to my house as it has hedgerows at each side so its not much trouble to get a bat in the frame of a wide angled lens (about 1 in 3 frames),but Ive had trouble with the focusing.I love bats and at first I was concerned that the flashes would disturb them ,but they seem not to be bothered.

Regards Les.

larachmor · #2 (**permalink**) 30-05-2009, 08:06 PM

Hi Les, Last weekend I attended a talk given by wildlife photographer Laurie Campbell (Laurie Campbell - Scottish Natural History Photographer) My own interest is not in bats, but other aspects of his wildlife photography. He did say however that photographing bats was one of his current projects, and he was taking shots in a similar fashion to yourself - by firing off into the night in the lane outside his house and, more or less, hoping for the best. But one thing he did say was that he was using a "customised flash" which to my recollection was synchronised to something in the order of 1/2000 of a second, as he had found it virtually impossible to freeze the bat in flight. So perhaps it's the speed of the flash as opposed to your (perceived) inability to get it in focus that's spoiling your shot. (Laurie's were razor-sharp.)
He has a regular monthly feature in "Outdoor Photography" so I would suggest keeping your eyes open in up and coming issues for an article on the subject.

canis.rufus · #3 (**permalink**) 31-05-2009, 01:16 PM

Hi Les,

That's not a bad result from a shot in the dark (sorry).

Photographing bats in flight is difficult due their high speed and unpredictable flight.

I agree with larachmor that you seem to have some motion blur from the flash duration. As you seem to be using an external flashgun, you should be able to reduce the flash duration by reducing the power of the flash. However thanks to inverse square law; by halving the power you reduce the range by a quarter meaning you need the flash to be closer to the bats.

You will also have a problem with focus, as the obvious solution to the lack of light would be to use a wider aperture, but then you have a smaller depth of field reducing the chance that the bat will be in the plane of focus.

My solution to this problem has been to photography bats when I know exactly where they will be - when they are leaving the roost. However, although the law on photographing bats in flight seems slightly grey (and you are probably ok, although I'm no lawyer), the general consensus seems to be that doing it right outside roosts is not cool.

To this end I have been using an infra-red converted DSLR. It is still a work in progress but you can seem a couple of shots from one of our regular surveys on my flickr page:

Flying Left on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Good luck - Toby.

Les E · #4 (**permalink**) 31-05-2009, 07:38 PM

HI There,
Thanks for your useful comments.I realise the limitations of my equipment to get really good shots of bats.My DSLR only has 6.2mp and the flash wont operate faster than 1/180th of a second so Im quite pleased with the results considering a Pipistrelle is no larger than a mouse travelling erratically at 60KPH.

Regards Les.