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Wildlife photography, equipment, workshops, trips and adventures. Please follow me as the adventure continues.
Day One -- Morning at the Famous Elephant Head Pond
Day started early departing Santa Rita Lodge for the 30 min. trip to Elephant Head Pond. Bill had all the food for birds and critters out so it was a matter of just sitting in the blind and wait for the critters to arrive. They did not let us down.
Gambel's Quail
House Finch Feeding Young
Northern Cardinal Female and Male
Road Runner
White-winged Dove
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Curved-billed Thrasher
Baby Gambel's Quail
Pyyhuloxia
Gila Woodpecker
Canyon Towhee bathing
Cactus Wren
So how does one photograph a Bat after dark?
So how does one photograph a Bat after dark?
On a small pond called Elephant Head pond just south of Green valley, AZ a set was designed to allow the photography of bats flying into a pond to get a drink of water after dark. The set used an Infrared trap and high speed flash to illuminate the bates as they fly by. Cameras with an assortment of different focal lengths are focused on the area of the beam and turned to take images every 8 to 15 seconds. The cameras take one image after another, all will be black accept when a bat triggers the flash. Here are a few shots of what the setup looks like before dark.
Cameras on tripods pre-focused and ready for the dark and the evening shoot
Shot showing cameras and 4 Einstein flash unit
Infrared TV sets connected to elevated and ground level infrared cameras to monitor area after dark from about 10 yards away from pond, popcorn anyone?
Entire set up including string used to align the IR trap
Final adjustments on the flashes and IR trap.
With a lot of luck, aiming the camera correctly, and the bats cooperate, you can get a great image of a bat with reflection in the water.
The Killing MUST stop!
I follow conservation efforts in Africa and the news just seems to be getting worse all the time.
From African Geographic, March 2013
Gabon, West Africa
HUGE ELEPHANT LOSSES
New research carried out by the Gabonese national parks agency ANPN, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has revealed that poachers have killed about 11 000 forest elephants in Minkébé National Park since 2004. According to Dr Fiona Maisels of WCS, data collected in the park nine years ago were compared to results of the latest survey, conducted in October 2012. Authorities believe that between 50 and 100 elephants were being killed per day in 2011, with much of the poaching being carried out by gangs from neighboring Cameroon.
South Africa
Also bad news from that area.
From January 1, 2013 to February 13, 2013 96 White Rhinos were killed for their horns.
This needless killing must stop!
First 10 days with the Surface Pro 128
A quick review of my new Surface Pro 128
I received my Surface Pro 128 10 days ago and so far it is the answer to all my wants for a small, lightweight, touch screen computer. I have loaded Office 2013, Lightroom 4.3, Photoshop 5.1, Breeze Systems Downloaded Pro and Mirror Folder, my 3 favorite field guides and still have 73 GB free on its 128 GB Solid State Hard Drive.
Speed, yes it is fast, in fact it is faster than my windows 8 touch screen notebook. The I-5 Dual core flies using Lightroom, Photoshop, or any of the Office 2013 apps. The folding cover/keyboard is great but not a necessity especially with the stylus and it’s great hand writing recognition for blogging of taking notes in the field.
I have used a mini USB 3 powered hub connected to a card reader and 2 1-TB hard drives. Downloading from compact flash cards to one of the external drives and at the same time mirroring to the second drive is fast. So far a full charge lasts me about 6 to 7 hours.
This is a workhorse tablet computer capable of running real applications and weighing in less than 2 lbs. I’m looking forward to my first long trip in May to give it a real test in the field.
Update - Photo App Test:
I loaded about 100 photos from my traveling (notebook/iPad) slide show. The new built in Photo App rocks.