Photographing Bats

[Ryewolf]

There are lots of bats near where I live, there's an old mill lodge just around the corner and the bats fly down there in the evenings.

I've never tried photographing them, actually I wasn't sure if it was even possible? As they only come out at dusk/night I thought that it might be pretty nigh on impossible to photograph them... Or am I wrong?

[Guest]

we have bats in our garden I would love to photograph them

[Guest Ron]

Hi Rye,

Yes it is possible, many years ago in my 35mm film days I had a try at photographing bats.

At that time I only had a mechanical SLR, a friend who was into electronics built me an infra red trigger and servo unit to operate my Vivitar flash and the shutter.

I had the camera set up on a tripod with the flash positioned off camera aimed at the line of sight of the lens. Through trial and error I found that the trigger had to be set up about four feet ahead of the camera, you will be surprised how fast bats fly and the distance covered in a few milliseconds.

I had this all set up in a an old church tower adjacent to some louvres through which the bats would come and go. To be honest it was all a bit Heath Robinson and I was never really successful though I did capture one or two half bats as they disappeared out of view.

However nowadays with digital cameras remote flash and modern infra red triggers etc it should be easier to set up well equipment wise at least. It will still need a lot of trial and error in positioning the gear and finding a regular flight path that the bats use.

I,m sure you know Rye but all bats are protected and if you find a site where they roost which would be a good starting point to work out a regular flight path, you must not do anything to disturb or interfere with them at the roost.

Good luck if you give it a go but you will need a lot of patience.

Ron    

 

[Ryewolf]

Thanks Ron that's good to know. I already know where they fly too, down the old railway line to the old mill lodge, no idea where they roost. Yes I was aware that they are protected so would only be watching them as they fly, but didn't think you could actually photograph them.

[Guest Ron]

Hi Rye

To stand an half decent chance of capturing them you really need to know where they fly in quite a narrow band i.e. entering or leaving the roost or flying through a narrow space or similar. Not easy I know but trying to catch them out in the open is impossible, I,ve tried..!

Ron

[Ryewolf]

To be honest I'm glad someone has tried, even if it meant failing. My first instincts were that it would be very tricky, I'm not planning on trying anytime soon but I know at this time of year they are always about. It's usually Pipistrelle bats I see. But I was pretty sure as they are common around the UK that someone must've tried photographing then before and at least found out that's it's pretty difficult.

[Guest Ron]

If you google it Rye you will see some stunning pictures of bats in flight but if you read about them they have all taken a lot of setting up to capture the images.

Ron

Edited July 11, 2015 by Ron