The story behind great action photos
It’s been great fun gathering plants and rocks from the area and re-creating the scene inside the photography studio. Photographing Bulgarian bats has proven far more difficult than anticipated. For the past five nights Merlin, Toni and Dani have worked all night, shooting hundreds of images nightly of which only about one in hundreds have been […]
Bat Intelligence
Daniela ‘Dani’ Schmieder can train bats to fly to her hand for food. This comes in handy for photographing them in the studio, as they can be called to a specific location. They become used to her and let her pick them up for the next photo op, without having to chase them all around […]
Portraits: Bats of Bulgaria
Our first night in the field we set a bat trap in the entrance of Orlova Chuka Cave where we caught six species of bats, four of which we were able to photograph. The others were nursing mothers we had to release. We haven’t been able to capture more bats for the last three days due […]
Bats Televised Nationally in Bulgaria
Merlin’s talk in Sofia, Bulgaria at the British Council, the educational arm of the British Embassy in Bulgaria, was broadcast on one of Bulgaria’s most popular news programs. The talk was an introduction to bats worldwide. Afterwards, several interested attendees were invited to join us for lunch in a nearby cafe. After the talk, […]
The Siemers Bat Field Station in Tabachka, Bulgaria
Our Friday the 13th flight from Paris to Sofia was uneventful. From my window seat on the plane the views of the Alps were spectacular. I hope to go there some day. But this trip we are working in Bulgaria! My Lonely Planet travel guide says: “wild wooded mountain ranges speckled with remote villages and enchanting monasteries […]
Merlin’s Book and Bulgaria
After arriving home from South Africa on the 1st of May, Merlin immediately began work revising his manuscript titled Adventures of the Real Bat Man. Intended as a story-telling introduction to the amazing world of bats, it is now in press with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the first round of editing has been completed. And […]