Photographing Bats at World’s Largest Cactus Species
Last night in the Mexican desert Merlin was perched on the roof of Fred and Paul’s suburban alongside a giant cardon cactus. He mounted his camera on a tripod with a flash nearby. While we raised a second flash on a tripod duct-taped to three 10-foot poles to create a super tripod. And that was […]
Western Yellow Bat Portrait
Last night our amazing bat-catching team: Fred Frick, Paul Heady and their friend and colleague, Marm Kilpatrick, succeeded in capturing a Western Yellow bat, a species which Merlin wanted to add to his portrait collection. On their way back to us, they called ahead and we got the set ready. No night off for us, […]
Flight shots of Pallid bats
Everything doesn’t go so great all the time. We have our bad nights too. On our second night with bats in the studio, we shot 300 photos, most really good ones. Two nights ago we only got a few useful images, mostly because we were attempting an extremely difficult shot, namely bats in their final approach […]
La Contessa, Pallid Bat of the Baja
We spent the afternoon looking for night roosts, because the cold front and high winds would minimize bat activity. We drove for miles, looking under bridges with no luck. Then we spotted an abandoned cinder-block building. On the floor inside we found lots of droppings and abundant wings of large insects, indicative of night roosting […]
Studio Setup & Strategy
Arriving in a country with 350 pounds of photographic and field gear is always stressful. The immigration folks at the airport carefully examined every piece of equipment, but enjoyed Merlin’s stories of how he photographs bats. An hour later, we were cleared. The first order of business was to set up the studio in a […]
Next Stop: Baja California Sur for Bat Photography
It’s been a long time coming, but we’re back on the road again! It’s springtime in the gorgeous Sonoran Desert. This next adventure takes us to Baja California Sur of Mexico. We’re hoping to provide the first photographic documentation of insect-eating pallid bats pollinating the world’s largest cactus, the cardon, which lives exclusively in Mexico […]