Catching Bats In Flight At Dusk?

[Dave-M]

Hi Folks,

I was wondering if anyone could give me any pointers on shooting some bats that have been flying round my house at dusk for the last few nights. They don't appear to be bothered by me being there and are actually swooping quite close, but they move so quick and the light is so poor, that I'm not sure where to start.

Would remote flash be a good idea? They are blind right? I could possibly position the flash higher up to light them up without frightening them if this is the case?

Also, I have a 40D and 17-55 IS if that helps with pointers. :)

Thanks,

Dave.

[urbansickness]

um, i may be wrong, might have to check up on it, but fire a flash at a bat can cause distress which can be illegal as there a protected species.

Dont quote me on that, but im sure this came up along time ago on another forum (this is in UK, im not sure where your from)

[Dave-M]

Oh right, good job I checked then :) Thanks for the info :)

I'm in the UK by the way.

[Waldemar Sikorski]

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/media-and-info/photographing-bats.html

[canonloader]

Just for fun, you may enjoy this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=210302). :)

Some video if your really bored (http://www.flashbax.com/bat/vlad_the_bat.html) and have high speed access.

[avan]

I see some documentary in europe where they use infrared barrier to trigger the camera and flash. All the set up are made on an open big metal frame with a camera covering the opening and infrarated barrier on the frame. In an other documentary the women who made the photography use a battery of flash that act as a stobe, too bad I don't remember the name!

[JBishop0]

night before last when I went out to take pictures of the stars, there were at least 3 bats flying around catching bugs in the air, so I tried to take a couple pics, I went to manual focus and flipped on the flash, it didnt seem to bother them at all, as I didnt notice them really stopping what they were doing at all. This was taken with no moon light at all, at about 1am.

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs200.snc1/6769_108844218971_580998971_2096132_601932_n.jpg