Another shot from the same series as the opening image, across a fallen branch

In case anyone is interested how the camera trap technique works, it’s basically creating an outdoor studio with a motion sensor so when an animal triggers it, the flashes set up to light the scene and camera all trigger at the same time. It’s a great way to take photos showing more natural behaviour without you disturbing them. It’s also a great way to take wide angle images of wildlife that otherwise wouldn’t let you anywhere near them. For the more technical out there, I tend to set my camera settings as below;

Shutter speed - anywhere between 1/100sec. to 30 seconds (depending on how much ambient light you want in the image).

Aperture - anywhere between f/8 and f/16 to ensure sharpness.

ISO - usually around ISO800 or ISO1000 (or higher for star scapes) so I can keep the flashes on a lower power, allowing for faster recycle times.

Flashes - on manual power anywhere between 1/8th - 1/16th usually, depending on the distance.

The key thing to remember is natural light sources come from above (i.e. the sun or moon), so always put the flash above your subject. Obvious when you think about it!

The photo above was actually taken on my last night in Oban, and is part of the same series as the opening shot of this blog. It took 3 nights to get the image I was happy with, but that was more my trial and error than the Pine Marten not playing ball.