Fox photography

Alex90 · #1 (**permalink**) 14-06-2010, 09:41 PM

Hi,

I was hoping someone might be able to give me some tips on night time photography.

I have been trying to photograph foxes at night for some time now with little success ... largely due to equipment failure or my lack of experience with the equipment.

I have been following a family of foxes with 5 cubs and see them everytime i sit out at the location... but 3 or 4 times i have attempted to take pictures using flash and the camera hasnt fired.

We also have a very high population of foxes in the surrounding area of which 5-0 individuals enter the grounds of our house almost nightly... its unusual for us not to see foxes... and nice to have something that kills the silly numbers of wood pigeons in our woods. just tonight i was out and was within 4/5 meters of a dog fox that we see regularly and went to take the picture and the flash fired repeatedly to focus but no image taken...

I'd like to add we don't feed the foxes at all here... although i have occaisionally put out food as bait in front of a hide.

i better explain what i am attempting to use for these pictures... i have a canon 300D and seperately a sunpak 4000 flash with a little sensor that picks up the onboard flash.

i handhold the camera and position the flash on a tripod a meter or so away from me.

i was wondering if its possible to use infa red for photography or is that just film? in which case what is the best infa red/night vision recording equipment i can get at a reasonably low price.

Any help much appreciated

Alex

doubleclix · #2 (**permalink**) 16-06-2010, 07:50 AM

Hi Alex,

I've found on my Nikon that the flash sometimes fails to fire if the autofocus cannot find a spot to focus on. You could try to use manual focus. Something similar was really annoying me once so I just went somewhere similar to the light levels, then fiddled until I could guarentee that the functions worked as I wanted them to.

As for IR photography, I read an article on the BBC website and followed some links through and read that any digital camera can shoot IR - I'm not sure how true this is due to sensors etc but you never know.

Also check out http://www.infrared100.org/

Hope that helps

Elevate29 · #3 (**permalink**) 16-06-2010, 09:29 PM

Hi Alex,
Does the sunpak fire at all? If you're using the onboard flash to trigger the slave it may be that the 'pre-flash' for focussing is tripping it prematurely. Either way, it might be worth trying some cheap radio triggers to fire remotely instead.

Elevate

Words · #4 (**permalink**) 17-06-2010, 06:51 AM

It sounds like a focusing problem. If you can't focus then the shot won't be taken. The Canon flash units use an IR beam for low light focusing. It's more effective than a strobing flash (and less intrusive, though it sounds as though your foxes don't mind). Distance will also be a factor, and lens. I use the Canon 430EX flash unit on a 40D. At night it will focus up to 30 or 40 feet away with the IR beam, but is either slow or fails if I am using anything much over 100mm focal length.

Alex90 · #5 (**permalink**) 17-06-2010, 09:21 PM

Doubleclix and Words you are absolutely spot on ... i can't believe i didnt think to just set it to manual .. become too reliant on the autofocus!!!

Will sit out tommorow and hopefully bring you images of the local family of foxes!

doubleclix · #6 (**permalink**) 18-06-2010, 11:32 AM

haha - That's fine, I hope it helps you! I only found it out by chance as I bought a lens on the cheap because it doesnt autofocus with the camera body I have. I've also noticed that if the light level is low on the 18-55mm kit lens then it can sometimes struggle to find the autofocus point and so will fail.

All chance, but useful to know!

Hope you get some decent fox snaps now

Wizmatt · #7 (**permalink**) 19-06-2010, 05:21 PM

Some DSLRs can take Infra-red photos, but you will need to buy an infra-red filter which aren't cheap. They are usually used for landscape photography as once it is fitted you will not be able to see anything through the viewfinder. Furthermore the shutter speeds will be very long, so I wouldn't reccommend it for wildlife.

doubleclix · #8 (**permalink**) 19-06-2010, 06:01 PM

Thanks for the info Wizmatt

- do you have any images I could take a peep at? I've never actually seen any "in real life" as it were, only the ones on the internet. They seem rather cagey about the info they want to provide with the images.