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Steady as you go, B.Y. 2020


Dave Williams

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Dave Williams
12 minutes ago, Zim Girl said:

Fantastic badger pictures Dave, I would be staying up half the night too if I had badgers in my garden.

 

I can honestly say I have hardly watched a minute of TV in the last couple of weeks. I can't resist watching the badgers but hopefully I will regain a degree of normality again soon before the intrusion in to our domestic life creates a problem. Mind you when I told Claire about the potential income she didn't just dismiss it either but agrees we don't need it and our privacy is more important, Besides, if it was a business proposition I'm sure we'd have neighbours competing with us!

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Peter Connan

As always, your work is inspirational Dave!

 

There is a second, somewhat similar setup to Zimanga in the Greater Kruger, called Indlovu River Lodge: https://www.irl.co.za/

 

Prices probably aren't much better though, but the fee structure is very different so I find it difficult to compare them.

 

However, there is a hide in the Kruger where one can stay overnight in the hide. I must investigate that one further!

Edited by Peter Connan
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Dave Williams
12 minutes ago, Peter Connan said:

As always, your work is inspirationaldave!

 

There is a second, somewhat similar setup to Zimanga in the Greater Kruger, called Indlovu River Lodge: https://www.irl.co.za/

 

Prices probably aren't much better though, but the fee structure is very different so I find it difficult to compare them.

 

However, there is a hide in the Kruger where one can stay overnight in the hide. I must investigate that one further!

 

Hi Peter, I'm aware of the two overnight hides in Kruger and in fact have visited both during the day. It might be different during or after the wetter months but I wasn't impressed with either if I'm honest. Looking at Zimanga I thought give me Biyamiti Weir any day and at a fraction of the price. I have rebooked a week in KNP next May now with the option that I can cancel again or move the dates.

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Fantastic Badger photos and what a brilliant setup you have created.

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Dave Williams

It's been so long in lockdown I forget what I have or haven't already included so it was nice to see another garden capture hasn't already been included

162) Great Spotted Woodpecker

This is the juvenile with a red cap.

50005758152_38b1526fc9_b.jpgGreat Spotted Woodpecker.   Dendrocopos major by Dave Williams, on Flickr

and this is his Dad with a red nape

50001649358_f1edc59f55_b.jpgGreat Spotted Woodpecker. Dendrocopos major by Dave Williams, on Flickr

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Excellent shots of the woodpecker!

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michael-ibk

Love your Badgers Dave! Interesting discussion about the hides. The photographer in me likes them a lot, and like you say it will get you stellar shots of species which are normally unattainable. But I´m leaning more towards what Fred has said, finding a bird yourself (and maybe even getting a good shot) is quite a different - and often more satisfactory - experience. One of the more expensive ones I did was for Vultures in Bulgaria. Not exactly what I had hoped for, spent seven hours in there, and only two Egyptians popped up for about five minutes.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Dave Williams

Lockdown goes on here in Wales, the 5 mile limit I'm allowed to travel in would give me a few opportunities and although I have taken the camera out once I didn't feel as if I had anything worthwhile to add. Instead I have just concentrated on the garden and thinking of ways to improve on my Badger shots. Way back at the beginning of May I was delighted to discover one of the visiting Badgers wasn't just coming for food but occasionally wandered to the bottom of our garden where there is a water trough. I wanted a better shot than the ones a Trail Camera give you but all the evidence presented suggested this was no mean task. The Badger's visits were infrequent, very infrequent but when it did it was usually after it had eaten at my feeding station. The latter though is directly outside the house so to get there myself I'd have to go before the Badger had arrived otherwise it would scurry off back in to the woods. I have cover in front of the trough, it's a children's playhouse which is easily big enough to conceal me in, much bigger than my tent hide but it's very, very close to the water trough. Too close to remain undetected in all probability as the Badger has to walk past within a metre and would no doubt detect the presence of human smell.

A big decision because the second problem was that my trail camera showed that a typical visit was not only infrequent, once a week if I'm lucky, but also very brief. Usually around 20 seconds.

Now, I'm an enthusiastic photographer and I have demonstrated I am prepared to suffer for my art but sitting in a hide in to the early hours on the off chance a Badger turns up, remaining undetected then having 20 seconds to get the shot I'm after is, on balance, not something I am prepared to even try.The odds are heavily stacked against you.

I had to try and think of something different!

The first option was time lapse. With the trough now illuminated I set the camera to take a shot every 15 seconds starting at 10.00pm before the Badger would probably arrive at the feeding station. Next morning I had 1400 shots of nothing! I couldn't carry on doing that, it wasn't going to give me more than 3 shots at the very best and to get them it would take maybe 10,000 shutter clicks! For this sort of photography you have to go to manual focus, then make some big decisions on aperture for depth of field, shutter speed to avoid blur and to get those two perhaps compromise on ISO which in turn creates noisy images.

The trail camera of course relies on movement to trigger stand you can decide how many shots you want to take and at what interval.

That had to be the answer. Motion detection.

I'd stopped monitoring the trough so I decided to take another look over a few nights and to my delight I discovered that on 3 consecutive nights a Tawny Owlet had visited, and during one nighttime session a badger too.

I now had two targets, Owl and Badger.

I invested in some new kit for my DSLR. My new Hahnel Captur motion detection set up means I just set up the camera and walk away. Many would call it cheating but it isn't all a walk in the park. Getting it to work in the first place took some working out and I needed my project sharer Mike to show me how because the instructions the various parts come with are near non existent and the Youtube videos are not much better either however, once you know what you are doing it's straightforward, the guessing game is back in the camera. Unlike a Trail Camera though, the spread of motion detection is a very fine line between two points but at least knowing where that line is helps decide on aperture. If the subject doesn't break the beam then you don't get any shots.Pretty simple eh!

So far I have invested in the basic receiver and transmitter, the IR module, two extra receivers and two used Canon flash guns picked up on eBay. Then I bought some more LED lamps and cable.  (Incidentally, I won't use the flash on wildlife, preferring a constant light that allows my subject to decide if they want to enter it, rather than subjected to it against their natural wishes)

About £400 in all.

Not including batteries and this kit is pretty thirsty. 6 AA batteries will last perhaps 3 nights if I'm lucky.

So far, no Badger but the consolation prize is very worth while.

Not a Tawny Owlet but an adult bird. A lot of luck involved too because to my surprise the adult visited in the early hours just after dawn so my images could easily have been over exposed beyond retrieving. 

I was really pleased with the resulting images, an unusual sight of a Tawny having a bath!

 

50053911811_46e4ab781f_b.jpgTawny Owl bath time by Dave Williams, on Flickr

Obviously aware of the camera shutter!

50054161752_989ce60e16_b.jpgTawny Owl bath time by Dave Williams, on Flickr

You can see the dilemma on shutter speed 

50051047296_c5367392d2_b.jpgTawny Owl bath time by Dave Williams, on Flickr

These were all taken with an 85mm lens at f4, 1/100th of a second at ISO 6400.

50050475203_87a6fce6f5_b.jpgTawny Owl bath time by Dave Williams, on Flickr

It's still very much work in progress still to decide on camera settings and improved lighting and yes, takes a lot of the pain of sitting around away but you still need the same amount of luck that your subject turns up. For the last three nights I have nothing to show for my efforts.

50054159952_0cd629cda6_b.jpgTawny Owl bath time by Dave Williams, on Flickr

Edited by Dave Williams
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Peter Connan

Perseverance pays! Stunning series of shots! 

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Excellent work Dave - you are a determined character and this has really paid off. Well done

Keep us informed!

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Dave Williams

163) Eurasian Nuthatch

Been hearing one around for several days and grabbed a shot today, same perch as the Great Spotted Woodpecker uses bffore taking a turn on the feeders.

50055032557_0b29c5c785_b.jpgEurasian Nuthatch  Sitta europaea by Dave Williams, on Flickr

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Dave Williams

164) Great Tit

Well, if you are waiting around for a Nuthatch you might as well grab a Great Tit too!

50054780846_d6f6ab72d6_b.jpgGreat Tit  Parus major by Dave Williams, on Flickr

and I love the looks of a juvenile Robin too

50054203088_69e0e8187e_b.jpgJuvenile Robin by Dave Williams, on Flickr

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Brilliant and it is always good to learn of something good coming out of lockdown. Jealous as hell.

I am no techy type but is there not another way? My camera has a Wiffy connection. Does this not let you connect camera to your smartphone (what they??) of you had one? Or Laptop?

Would this not let you operate camera shutter from the comfort of your lounge whilst seeing what the camera was seeing?

And if this is all true no need to prop open eyes with matchsticks. A simple passive IR motion detector wired to a buzzer in your lounge would tell you when you had a visitor.

Just thinking aloud following your inspiration.

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Dave Williams

@GalanaGood idea Fred, one of my two cameras, the Canon 5D4, does have a wifi operated remote control via my mobile and the beauty of it is that I can change all the settings including where I put the focus point and see exactly what the photo is I'm taking. Trouble is the water trough is out of range of the house and router , it's about 45-50m away so that's a non starter. Nice idea and one I tried a while back. Likewise the alarm IR, however, if I had that going off in the bedroom I don't think I'd be sharing it with Claire for much longer...

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@Dave Williams, its been a lot of fun catching up on your hobbies over the last few months. What a treat having the Badgers in your Garden, when we were in the UK last year I tried unsuccessfully to get into a night time Tour to see Badgers, but all booked out. Eventually saw only one, roadkill! :(  Anyways, hope you're having as much success with the veggies.Fantastic photos,  I do love the little Blue Tit and Chaffinch, we saw "lots" across the UK in both public parks and BandB gardens so they remind me happily of our trip.

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14 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

if I had that going off in the bedroom

Too much detail!:o

I DID say "in the lounge!":)

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I’m enjoying a lot your home lockdown series Dave, and those owlet shots are superb for me!!

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Dave Williams
1 hour ago, Soukous said:

Will Burrard-Lucas has some pretty good stuff 

https://www.camtraptions.com/camera-traps/

 

Interesting link Martin and thanks for posting. The immediate advantage I see is that the advertised PIR is weather proof, my Hahnel set up isn't but the Hahnel Captur Pro works well when each of the transmitter and IR unit are placed in a plastic boxes ( used ice cream tub for example) 

You have to buy the basic unit too before you can use the Captur Pro.

The basic unit is a transmitter and receiver and costs around £60 .

https://www.hahnel.ie/irish-shop/captur_for_nikon/

Its use is as a wireless remote control and works up to 100m distance.I have tried using it on my Badger shots and it was effective although I wasn't very far away, just sat in the bedroom window. The advantage is that the badger can't detect my presence in the house but can in the hide if the wind is blowing the wrong direction. The disadvantage is that I'm stuck with the settings already placed in camera including the focus point so setting sufficient depth of field is critical, as well as framing the shot.BH2I9737.jpg.81e6e39783e0a2b2cfc857f9b94719fd.jpgThe Badger image demonstrates I failed to judge it correctly  having zoomed in too close ..a lesson learnt for my next attempt.

Anyway, that's the basic unit.

The Captur Pro is the IR unit and a transmitter and costs around £90. 

https://www.hahnel.ie/irish-shop/captur_module_pro/

 

It has a range of from virtually cms ( good for macro) up to 12m from unit to receiver which is more than sufficient. You have to photograph within that given space so any wider and your subject would be very tiny in the frame. There are lots of potential spots I could think of using it for wildlife but the Badger on the stump isn't one of them. 

Why?

Because if the subject is there for 30 minutes chomping on the bait I have put down, there will be hundreds of useless shots where the head is turned the wrong way etc so visual real life approach is better. Badger at the water trough for 20 seconds is the opportunity that it's perfect for, or a path that something is going to cross as part of a regular route, that sort of thing.

To use the Captur pro you need the receiver from the basic unit attached to your camera to receive the message from the IR transmitter.

The beauty of the Captur Pro transmitter is that it can receive signals of light, sound and by laser pen as well as from the IR unit so it can be used for all sorts of studio set ups to capture images of bursting balloons or bullets fired through apples etc.( Something to do on a day like today when it's awful outside!) The transmitter can be set to work continuously for 5 seconds, with limits on the number of times the IR beam is triggered too. Then it's down to the camera's capabilities. If I set my 1DX to fire at high speed fps for 5 seconds as many times as possible I could fill a camera card before it stopped, there again if I just want a few images each time it 's broken I reduce the frequency to a 1 second burst or set the camera on single shot. I can also set a delay before the first shot is taken of up to 10 seconds. Can be useful if for example you put food down. Once the subject has started to eat, less chance it will run away if it hears the camera shutter. ( That's where mirrorless might be a huge advantage too)

In addition to the above arrangement you can purchase extra receivers for around £35 each and use them to trigger flash guns at the same time as the camera gets instructions to fire. You couldn't let the flash guns fire indefinitely or they'd be damaged so you'd need to limit the shots taken in such events. I don't intend using them for wildlife shots anyway.

In summary, the Hahnel set up offers lots of flexibility for the outlay, from wireless remote control of your camera, to IR detection, to a full studio flash set up for portraits etc.

 

The other advantage/disadvantage of the Camtraptions PIR is that you either want a wider spread of detection or you don't. I found my Trail Cam was easily triggered by bits of branch or grass blowing in the wind, or by unwanted images of Wood Pigeons landing on my water trough edges. I changed the the settings on the Trail Cam to only take shots during darkness and perhaps you can do that with this PIR, however, the Owl has been arriving outside these hours it seems. Frustrating when it sits on the wrong edge of my trough and my Hahnel beam isn't broken. I have reduced the possibility though as I know where the Badger tends to drink and the water is only shallow enough for the Owl to bathe at one end...the end where my set up is active.

Anyway, that's my brief description of what I have found to be the case so far! The Hahnel system is quite a bit cheaper too. I must admit that my ice cream tubs are a lot cheaper than the £150 that contraptions want for their waterproof camera housing.

Edited by Dave Williams
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Wonderful set of Tawny Owl pictures!

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I am loving these discussions on 'remote stuff' which will help me get 'decent' snaps of shy wildlife, when next abroad. My current trail camera interpolates to much for my liking and a better one works out at £250.

Keep these coming @Dave Williams and @Soukous.  I can think of worse ways to spend the budget savings otherwise made by not being allowed to waste money on trips to Africa for the last few months.:P

EBC and even EMC may become things of the past.

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16 minutes ago, Galana said:

EBC and even EMC may become things of the past.

 

Oh come on Fred. We're not that gullible. ;)

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Dave Williams

@Galana Keep a look put for the Aldi one, they tend to stock it a couple of time a year and they soon sell out. For £70 they are superb. If you haven't got an Aldi on the IOM they do online too. 

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Dave Williams

Decided to have another go at using my wireless remote last night, this time composing what I thought would nail the whole beast and allowing a bit of space to crop. I can't use the remote if the  receiver is hidden around the corner of the house so the camera was quite a bit closer to the subject than it would be in the hide. I set up the objects on the stump at different distances away. Auto focused on the middle one which is where I hoped the badgers head would likely be and tried a couple of apertures. I settled for f5.6, which appeared to keep the three objects looking sharp. Then it was a question of shutter speed. My initial thought was 1/160 th but I decided I needed one a bit faster. Much though I'd have loved to double it it would have meant sending the !S) up from 1600 to 3200. I compromised at 1/200th and ISO 2000.

All at 115mm  and a full frame camera. 

So much more comfortable from inside the house instead of the hide on a cold and fairly windy evening!

50059333843_d82ae1def4_b.jpgBadger.... Back on the stump by Dave Williams, on Flickr

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That is a stunning picture Dave, well worth all the time you are putting in on getting it right.

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