lens and film choice for big animals in the night

Hi.

 

I'll have a nightwatch(?) in the mountains in a forest clearing where

oversized brown bears pop up recently. I'll be reasonably well

protected (as well as my equipment) by the ~15 m height of the tree

they use to observe this fluffy fat teddy-shaped mammals, so don't

start to worry about my future photo.net posts.

 

My question is, what lens and film do you think it would be long and

fast enough to photograph from about 25-30m these nice dark

creatures in the dark and their cubs while they are harvesting berry,

slapping each other with or without a large trout and learning how to

steal honey from their undersized cohabitant vesps. The problem is

that all this happens during night and very early morning, oh maybe

that's called "dawn". Full moon will be switched on. No trees and

larger obstructions will be present on the playground.

 

Tripod is allowed, that will eliminate camera shake and hand shake,

however, it won't eliminate bear shake.

 

Please retain from suggesting wide-angles (i said BEAR not BEER) and

especially fisheyes. I do not want to be that trout.

 

Thank you all. Oh yes, i was asked by my friend the forest guy, not

to shoot with cannon :o). I also prefer available light against

flashlight. I'm just like that.

:o) :o) :o|

You might want to look into enhanced night optics made owl vision. Some of their products have T-mount adaptors (camera adaptors) that you can use on almost any SLR camera body. I know next to nothing about the technology but have seen some success using these types of optics in night conditions.

The night owl infrared viewers that Mr. Stemke suggested will yield pretty poor quality results. I use one for my research on frogs and the resolution is low. The generation II scopes do offer an improvement in resolution, but these scopes are also $1000.00 and up, and still will have poor resolution compared to a normal lens. Even in full moonlight you are not going to be able to get short enough exposures to avoid blurring the bears without flash.

Well,

 

just figure the bear to be 1 or 2 (?) meter tall, at 25 m distance this makes for an angle of about 5 degrees. A 300 mm lens covers what angle? a 200 mm lens does ??

 

[Hint: just look it up on Canon's Nikon's website and arm yourself with a 300/2.8, 800 film, and good luck.]

 

And do register for a refresher on geometry at your local community college ... Photography involves a lot of geometry, you know ...

Thanks for the answers so far. My possibility is reduced to renting a good lens, but thanks for the info about the owl vision. I wonder if it is safe to tell the shop that I want to rent it for sitting on a treetop at 15m in the night and shooting bears with it...

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Frank, i think it will be even less than the 5 degrees you mention, if you mean Celsius. Maybe it could drop below zero, in the dawn. (It will be in october, in the mountains, you know.) Do you think that could cause problems to a 300/2.8 af lens?

<br>I will take a fluffy coat with me, and some rum. With hot tea, or without, i'll see.

I don't see how it can be done without a flash.

I'd agree, you'll almost certainly need to add light to the scene.

 

BTW, while grizzlies (and "brown" bears - like Kodiaks), can't climb trees, black bears, which can be brown and big, do.

about 14 years ago I was photographing the bears at katmai and one climbed about

25 feet up the tree next to the platform. there went my last sense of security, and

another myth.

 

jim

As the above poster did mention, bears climb quit well, they can likely get to your stand if they really want to ...

Do you see any flaws with hauling a lens you can't afford, forty feet in a tree, with a jug of rum, shooting a flash at a flock of bears out for a meal?

what if an IR source was used with IR film? I know the ever popular and inanely stupid television show "big brother" used IR sources and IR video cameras to film the tenants night-time activities, but would this work on film?

 

You will need some kind of electrical source, but that shouldn't be too horribly hard to achieve.

Tips on bear watching, from an expert forester: Sew several little jingle bells to your clothing to warn them of your coming, make no sudden or aggressive moves, and be prepared to play dead if attacked. To find bears, look for their droppings or "scat." To identify bear scat, they are from 6 to 8 inches in size, dark brown in color, and full of little bells.

Actually the black bear isn't all that interested in eating you, just your food. And unless they are used to having food up in that tree, they won't be expecting it up there. If you are really thinking of browns, I'd ask if you'd really upset your "friend" recently.

 

But what you're asking about is getting pictures in really bad conditions, makes shooting indoor basketball pictures seem easy. But if you'll think about it, you'd need fast film, lens and a lot of flash. It's going to be dark, no walls or ceilings to contain the flash, etc.

 

I'd suggest trying a similar distance with the gear you can put together, at ground level of course, and try to shoot a person at 50-60 feet or so. A bear won't be as big as a person (well, not as tall), he or she will be on all fours. I'm sure you'll be able to talk a friend into crawling around the forest at 4:00 AM.

 

I think you are going to want to use a spotlight of some sort as well as flash - the spotlight to add light, the flash will help with the color.

 

Don't do this alone. Don't drink. It won't be good for you in the cold and being less than fully alert, etc., on a small platform 40 feet in the air?

 

This may be a good time to get bird pictures too. Snipe come to mind.

Phew, lots of answers, thanks,... i have to keep two browser windows open to be able to answer! I'm happy to see that so manyu people like Mother Nature!:o) So, one after the other:

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<i>Jeffrey Rodgers</i>: Weeeell, me neither...

<br><i>Craig Gillette</i>: i was talking about the brown brown brown bear, not the brown black bear. In the Carpathes, in Transylvania, ...home (sweet home) of myself and dracula, guess it's the easiest to point to the place for most of the people. :o) Those bears are reeeeeeally dumb, they can't climb at all. So,as I said, don't worry about my future(PN posts). But thanks!

<br><i>jim stamates, peter witkop</i>: brrrrr, you can't scare me!:))

<br><i>bob thompson</i>: at least somebody, finally, does:D

<br><i>anno</i>: that's actually feasable, just most of the small commercial IR sources are, as far as i know, very weak for a brown animal on such a distance... but it's a useful idea, thanks.

<br><i>art haykin</i>: :o) great idea. You're the second one with seeing between the lines.

<br><i>craig gillette,again</i>:you're actually taking it very serious. So, the only problem with the flash is that these animals are walking around in the night because they like it black. Flash would scare the big Jesus out of them. Actually, i think a shutter release noise in the deep night would already do so. However, it's good what you say about flash. If they still want to climb up, i'll start flashing, so they will change their minds. Hmmmm. Btw, don't you like rum?

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So,after all this, i think i will try first with polar bears on a not too dark night...:o) :o) :o)

<br>thanks all for collaboration! I'll show the photos - but if i disappear, look in the bear scat for the rolls of film! They'll be great!

Csab-

 

The only thing that i can think of is if you got a few high intensity heat lamp and put an IR bandpass filter in front of each, you might be able to put two at ground level and one at treetop level and light conventionally... Still this might not be, or even prob isn'tg enough light... I do not know... If you have a set of tungsten photo/shop lamps that take standard screw-mount bulbs and the time prior to the date you'll be shooting, you could test it out, even if it doesn't work out, it would be useful information for future projects.

 

Ofcourse getting a IR Bandpass of sufficiant size and low price might not be possible... I have never seen one in sheet form, and EO's are only 2" square...

Why not use a remote for a camera placed on the ground. Nikon do an ML3 or something like that. Then put a 28mm or 20mm lens on and wait till the bear gets in position. You could use two or more cameras to cover different view points. I would use flash or 3200 B+W. Another possiblity would be to use a spot light and mix it with available light something I'm still working on as my results so far a bad. Good lick.

Csab -

 

I think Harry's idea is best... taking it one step further,i would rent the fastest 50mm i could find(Noctilux 1.0 springs to mind),set it up on a moonlit night along a well used bear trail with a "beam-trigger" type device to trip the shutter.

 

Leave it there over night,let the bear take its own picture,and return in the morning to retrieve your (hopefully still intact) camera. Take out insurance,incase any of the setup goes missing or gets chewed.