Badgers / foxes at night ?

[Tobyh]

Hey all,

I'm lucky enough to have foxes and a Badger in my garden most nights. So far I've had two attempts at getting a decent photo - I'm in a bag hide with a D50 and a Bigma, however I only have built in flash. I keep my outside light on which doesnt seem to bother the foxes or Badgers. Main problem - isn't the flash it's the noise of the shutter - they run off like their tails are on fire.

Is this just a keep doing it type thing until they get used to it? The foxes will come within about 8-10 feet of me, the Badger would have had I not taken a picture and scared it off (ruined the pic - didn't use redeye)

So from 2 pictures, this is best one -



Anyone have some tips please?

Thanks

TobyH

[mh68]

As far as shutter noise goes, you could prefocus the camera on a spot (eg a tightly concentrated pile of food) then wrap something round the camera to muffle the shutter,and use a cable release to trigger the camera. I know a couple of birders who shoot small birds at very close range from hides, and they just wrap an old jumper or something round the camera. Seems to muffle the shutter noise enough not to spook anything.
I would have thought though that they will get used to the noise eventually.Words is the man to ask, he`s photographed the Foxes visiting his garden a lot, and will be able to give you an idea how long it may take for them to become accustomed to the camera noise...

Mark H

[BruceP]

If you load the Fox image into photoshop, you'll find that the histogram is well over to the left (underexposed) which is what you would expect from the built in flash, but a levels adjustment to set the white point, and then a shadows adjustment of 10% makes it look a very nice image.

PM me if you want detailed instructions.

As for the Badgers, let them get comfy eating the peanuts and raisons before you take a picture, and they probably won't notice/hear the shutter releasing.

[Words]

Toby, I've had no luck at all with Badgers, but I've found foxes will either become very tolerant of the camera (or more precisely a human with a camera), or hightail out at the first opportunity. It looks like you've got a youngster visiting, so I would think that a handful of sultanas would be enough to keep it interested for you to get a bit closer. The nearer you get the less risk of eyeshine.

I used to use the on-board flash on an S2 and then 400D, so getting in close was necessary. Leave a handful of sultanas out, wait a distance away 20 feet or so, and wait. Once they are used to grazing' you can tend to get closer (certainly too close to use the Bigma!). Move slowly, don't wave your arms, expect them to back off and then return. If you've got a 'taker' it will tend to approach you (which is better). Even now I keep movements fairly minimal with most of our foxes, apart from the one that's been coming for three years who doesn't care what I do.

But each Fox is different. We currently have a couple of vixens who also visit. One comes to about 18 inches away from me (nice full frame portraits!), but the other is still very wary. This shot was from about 18 inches with my 24-205 lens.

Nice shot by the way!

[Words]

Toby, just noticed your comment about not using 'red-eye'. I wouldn't worry about that. From a distance the foxes' eyes will light up like traffic lights anyway. Closer in, the red-eye setting is not necessary. I get eyeshine on a proportion of shots, and simply do some minor touching up in photoshop (I mask the eye, select 'colour replace' and eye-drop the eyeshine (which is often blue), and reduce lightness to almost zero. This tends to leave the pinlight reflection untouched, but takes the pupil back to a more natural look. The shot above is untouched by the way apart from a bit of sharpening.