More Fun with Trail Cam

coinman123 · Apr 18, 2016

Back in November I got a trail camera because I was curious about what animals live around my yard. I thought it would be fun to see what animals show up at night. Anyways, I have been surprised to see many animals appearing each night. Some nights I will get many animals, with videos or photos of foxes, opossums, raccoons, and skunks all in one night sometimes. I have done some posts about it before, back when I was just starting to use it. I figured that I will post one recent photo from a few nights ago, which I thought looked cool. I have been experimenting in different ways to put the camera up. I get cool results when I put the camera very low and a piece of bread a few inches in front of it. I love doing nature photography, and think this is a cool way to get some easy photos of animals I would normally not get photos of with my regular camera. Funny thing is, I have still never seen any animals near my property except birds and squirrels, even though every night there are so many animals that come which I never see.

Anyone else have a trail camera, or any cool photos from it they would like to share.

Alex Burke · Apr 18, 2016

I found out you can get flashes that fire a preshot laser that lets the camera focus and lights up the critter

I got an off brand system for really cheap and even one flash would work well on a DSLR they cost about 80bucks. The canon and Nikon flashes are hundreds of dollars but these knockoff brands do the trick sometimes for cheap and have the laser thingy

I wouldn't mind a trail cam myself they are pretty cool as you don't have to sit around waiting. Here is a pic of a trash panda I took with the cheap knockoff flash.

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1461026565.859800.webp

firemac · Apr 18, 2016

Be sure and keep an eye on the pets

Alex Burke · Apr 18, 2016

firemac said:
View attachment 1301526
Be sure and keep an eye on the pets

What is that a leopard lol where do you live?

coinman123 · Apr 18, 2016

Alex Burke said:
I found out you can get flashes that fire a preshot laser that lets the camera focus and lights up the critter I got an off brand system for really cheap and even one flash would work well on a DSLR they cost about 80bucks. The canon and Nikon flashes are hundreds of dollars but these knockoff brands do the trick sometimes for cheap and have the laser thingy I wouldn't mind a trail cam myself they are pretty cool as you don't have to sit around waiting. Here is a pic of a trash panda I took with the cheap knockoff flash. View attachment 1301509

That would be cool for my d5200, as it is really hard to do any focusing in the dark with it. I will look into that, Thanks and really cool photo!

coinman123 · Apr 18, 2016

firemac said:
View attachment 1301526
Be sure and keep an eye on the pets

Over here coyotes are the big threat to pets. I have only got a coyote once on my trail cam, and it was back in January, he only just walked by and sniffed where a fox had been. The whole place where my two goats and chicken live is above ground, locked at night, and fenced in. Probably pretty hard for most predators to get in. In the 10 years of raising chickens, I only had 2 issues with predators. Unfortunately, all of them could have been prevented. My favorite silkie chicken was killed by a hawk a few years ago, when we kept her in the yard unsupervised when there were hawks around. One of my hens was also killed by a fox a few years ago too, when I forgot to lock my chickens in that night (Easily preventable, and I'm lucky that just one was killed).

Here's a screenshot of the video of the coyote I got on the trail cam, a warning to be careful letting my dog out at night.

kcm · Apr 18, 2016

We have security cameras outside. One of the cameras was hidden in a driftwood fence. Was hilarious to watch our cat climb up and sit there. Off of that same camera, we also saw lots of deer, the neighbor's cows (the reason we put it up to begin with!), and even Whippoorwills. They're a dang-ugly bird, but they can catch bugs in near total darkness! Used to watch them for hours when they'd use the pole in front of the camera as their base. It was great to see a bug fly by, then the Whippoorwill would suddenly jet out and snatch the bug. ...Never got tiring!

Alex Burke · Apr 18, 2016

kcm said:
We have security cameras outside. One of the cameras was hidden in a driftwood fence. Was hilarious to watch our cat climb up and sit there. Off of that same camera, we also saw lots of deer, the neighbor's cows (the reason we put it up to begin with!), and even Whippoorwills. They're a dang-ugly bird, but they can catch bugs in near total darkness! Used to watch them for hours when they'd use the pole in front of the camera as their base. It was great to see a bug fly by, then the Whippoorwill would suddenly jet out and snatch the bug. ...Never got tiring!

I think with the new flash systems that enable something called "high speed sync" you could get amazing bird/bat pictures in flight because they come by and eat the bugs around a light at night. I remember before I was into photography watching a bat circle a cabin I was at and pick off bugs. Now I would setup a camera with two flashes and prob 800sec shutter, maybe higher and I think maybe I could get something cool of a bat grabbing a bug in flight with a little patience

kcm · Apr 18, 2016

When in the USAF and working night shift in the Communications Center, bats would come in through the top. Another Airman got an old squash racket from the Rec Hall and we kept track of Bat Kills - I was champion! ...Hey! You try sitting in a 10x12 room all night, LOCKED IN, and then have bats (sometimes multiples at once) come in. I promise, you're gonna be swinging!!

T.C. · Apr 19, 2016

coinman123 said:
Back in November I got a trail camera because I was curious about what animals live around my yard. I thought it would be fun to see what animals show up at night. Anyways, I have been surprised to see many animals appearing each night. Some nights I will get many animals, with videos or photos of foxes, opossums, raccoons, and skunks all in one night sometimes. I have done some posts about it before, back when I was just starting to use it. I figured that I will post one recent photo from a few nights ago, which I thought looked cool. I have been experimenting in different ways to put the camera up. I get cool results when I put the camera very low and a piece of bread a few inches in front of it. I love doing nature photography, and think this is a cool way to get some easy photos of animals I would normally not get photos of with my regular camera. Funny thing is, I have still never seen any animals near my property except birds and squirrels, even though every night there are so many animals that come which I never see.
View attachment 1301473

Anyone else have a trail camera, or any cool photos from it they would like to share.

I'm workin' on some tonight!! I borrowed my son's trail cam to catch the deer eatin' my wife's flowers....I caught an 'ol grizz tryin' it out to see if it works.

....damn....I may have to cap him!!

kcm · Apr 19, 2016

**kcm tries to picture T.C. placing a cap on the grizzly bear's head**

austin · Apr 19, 2016

Alex Burke said:
I found out you can get flashes that fire a preshot laser that lets the camera focus and lights up the critter I got an off brand system for really cheap and even one flash would work well on a DSLR they cost about 80bucks. The canon and Nikon flashes are hundreds of dollars but these knockoff brands do the trick sometimes for cheap and have the laser thingy I wouldn't mind a trail cam myself they are pretty cool as you don't have to sit around waiting. Here is a pic of a trash panda I took with the cheap knockoff flash. View attachment 1301509

That raccoon is probably thinking, "who you calling a trash panda" and probably saying, " can't even take a crap anymore with out ending up on something like TreasureNet".