In-between the set-ups that are shown in Parts 1 and 2, a path ran down a steep bank next to a substantial ash which gave me the idea of producing an ultra wide-angle photograph of an animal (be it a fox or badger) coming down the slope with the camera looking upwards towards the canopy. My intention, all along and right from the very beginning, was to 'progress' onto making photographs other than portraits. I'm not, for one moment, denigrating the 'get close with a wide-angle' technique but like any genre there's more than one approach and certainly, if you place an animal small in the frame and put it in context with its surroundings, it can say an awful lot more than when its nose is just inches from the lens! It's good to mix things up.
I wanted to use the widest lens I had at my disposal (14mm) while at the same time not positioning myself so far back that the subject becomes too small and lost. On a full-frame DSLR this produces a field of view of 104 degrees which, obviously, makes concealing the sensor and flash-unit quite a challenge.
The first thing I always do, with the camera in hand, is walk around the scene, settle on a composition and place the camera on a tripod. Everything else works around this. With trees and vegetation either side of the path, this is where a PIR (Passive Infra-Red Receiver) really comes into its own since it doesn't require the positioning of both a transmitter and receiver which, for this particular set-up, would have been next to impossible to employ. The PIR was positioned ontop of an old extendable hide pole and placed out of sight behind the ash tree. With the PIR's 'barn-doors' almost closed and pointing down I have found this to be a highly effective means of controlling the moment at which the animal triggers the sensor.
I felt that the lighting needed to be kept simple and, in any case, with such a wide scene it would have been extremely difficult to incorporate an elaborate lighting set-up. it was also important to control the light spill from the flash so a rather crude (but effective, anyway) cardboard snoot was constructed and attached to the unit. Since then, I've used it on a number of occasions. It has had its day now, but worked when I needed it and didn't cost me a penny!
As will all set-ups, you have to, of course, test it often using yourself as the model.
Through viewing the trail-cam footage which had been in place for the previous week, I could see that badgers were using the path in the middle of the night and never during the day so in order to record as much of the night sky as possible, I reasoned that I would need to increase the ISO higher than which I would normally use (usually 400 or 800), use a wide aperture and set the camera to its maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds. For camera-trap work, I generally use the Nikon D3200. it's cheap and if it gets stolen (not happened yet - touch wood!) I won't be too devastated. For the most part, it works a treat but I wouldn't trust the quality beyond ISO 1600 - and that's pushing it! And so, I had no other choice than to use the full-frame D810. Now, here's the problem. With it set up in the open and just 30 metres or so from a footpath (albeit one that is infrequently used) I couldn't leave the camera locked up in a weatherpoof housing for any prolonged periods. Also, it was too far away from any trees to which I could secure the camera. In order to obtain the perspective, I required the camera to be pointing upwards and so even if I could leave it in situ the glass would still need to be wiped clean on a semi-regular basis. There was nothing for it other than to risk leaving it there for the night; unattended and unattached! The sensor (which was switched on permanently to avoid me getting too close to the path), flash and tripod, on the other hand, were left there for a month since it would have been impractical to set everything up on the evening of photography without causing a disturbance and leaving my scent. I needed to be in and out as quickly as possible.
It was July, the badgers' activity was at its height and the canopy was dense and so in order to bring out as much of the sky as possible, I required clear or at least partial clear conditions. This rather limits when you can put the camera out but as luck would have it on my very first night I captured this image.
I made several further attempts but it was this one that I liked the most where the positioning of the badger and ambient light came together, nicely. Sometimes you just get lucky!
It's a wood I frequent quite often and while there last month and following weeks of strong winds the site was almost unrecognisable! The tree had toppled and huge branches from those nearby lay strewn all around. Imagine if I had decided not to do it there and then, putting it off for another year? A mantra that I have carried with me since I began photographing nature 40 years ago (I started young!) could never have been more pertinent. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
