Night Photography

<p>I am interested in shooting wildlife pictures at night. For obvious reasons this will be difficult, and I have no experience in night photography of moving objects. I shoot PENTAX, and I have a Kiron 80-200/4, a Sigma 70-300/4-5.6, a 50/1.7, and two other lenses that are not relevant for reasons of focal length and aperture. I do have a location where this could be done, but more problems than solutions. My cameras are a Vivitar V3800n and a PENTAX K20D. My father owns an F50 that he would let me borrow if necessary, but I would have to purchase a lens for it if I wanted telephoto, as he owns a Nikor 50/1.4 and a Tamron 28-200/3.5-5.6. I have taken time to teach myself how to stalk the animal I am trying to photograph, and I just need help with night-specific aspects of wildlife photography.</p>

<p>Please and thank you!</p>

<p>A number of dealers (sporting/hunting like Cabela, Bass Pro, etc.) offer specific night time setups to photograph animals at night . Generally they use an infrared or capacitative trigger to set off an infrared flash when the animal passes within a certain range. This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but night photography of animals usually requires special gear.</p>

<p>Peter, what type of animals are looking to shoot? I shoot a lot of reptiles at night, but I can get close to them. Even with being a couple feet away from my subject, I still have the problem of not enough light being available for the camera to achieve focus and have to use a smaller light source for the camera to "see" my subject. If it's larger animals, such as deer, than you would have to maybe set up an infra-red trigger system and several flashes in a certain area that you know ahead of time the animal would enter into. It would be very difficult to shoot a large animal while just walking through the forest or field at night and hoping to get close enough for a decent shot. Because it's at night you would most likely shoot in manual mode to insure a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the animal and reduce any blurring, but that also requires a lot of light to carry around and chances are the animals will hear you coming before you even see them!</p>

<p>Since I don't know what type of animals you intend to shoot, I'd say your best bet is to set up in an area you know the animal you want to photograph will walk near; say along a known game trail. Have an external flash or two mounted to the side along the trail and fire them from the camera when the animal comes into position. You would have to be in a blind or up in a tree most likely. </p>

<p>Hi Peter. Like Kevin I am intrigued to know what animal you wish to photograph at night as this may limit the approaches you can take. Stalking any animal at night is difficult and more dangerous than doing so during daylight. The main technical problems are (1) focus - even if you see the animal you will probably not be able to focus your camera and autofocus will not work unless you have very specialised equipment : (2) exposure - unless you use flash you need very long exposures even if you crank the ISO up and this will blur any movement ; (3) unless you have specialised flash equipment in a preset location with remote triggering this flash be useless and may temporarily blind the animal you are photographing especially if it is noturnal. For these reasons pro night shots of animals are often "faked". For example small rodents are often caught and photographed indoors in realistic sets. Sometimes larger animals are shot in daylight and the images are altered afterwards to appear to be night shots. You might find this a lot easier to achieve the shots you want. Good luck.</p>

<p>Deer; I have seen literally hundreds of deer trails in the area, ranging from fawn to monster buck.</p>

<p>I would do it in the day time, but there seem to be almost infinitely more opportunities at night. I would greatly appreciate tips on how to <em>find</em> deer in the day. I follow trails, and then they end. I can identify fresh trails, and those are the ones I follow, but always to no avail. I cannot put out corn; the squirrels would go nuts. Essentially I need to hunt as if I had a rifle instead of a telephoto. For people I know, that usually means in the early morning (just before dawn) until 11. I will ask my hunter friends, but your help would be appreciated as well.</p>

<p>Put out a salt lick. As for photo's, set up in a hidden spot with camera. Have two flash such as Nikon SB-28 set up on lighweight stands and weighted down. Flash is triggered by CyberSyncs from up to 150 yards away. Prefocus the lens, use a flashmeter to set exposure at the salt lick. Wind direction is very critical.</p>

<p>Kent in SD,<br>

long time deer hunter,<br>

night photographer</p>

<p>It seems that I get mixed results. Some people say stalk, others say bait n wait; none thus far say they are equally successful. Would stalking the animal work as well in this case?</p>

<p>I see no way you'll be able to stalk deer at night, unless they are in a park and very used to humans. I've been hunting deer for over a quarter century and find it tough to stalk within 40 yards of them unless conditions are perfect. And that's in the daytime when I can see sticks and dry leaves well enough to avoid stepping on them. Put out a salt lick on the edge of a clearing, set up a couple of flash with CyberSyncs on them about 40 ft. from the salt, set up a blind about 50+ yards down wind, and sit tight.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>In the day is an option, I just began to notice that they were easier to find at night (among other things, when do they most commonly jump in front of your car)</p>