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01:47So hello again and good evening my friends.
01:50And it's an absolutely gorgeous evening.
01:53Which was a little bit unexpected because the prediction was for cloudy.
01:59Which it's also been cloudy for the next few days as well the predictions.
02:02So with any luck I might actually be able to get out in the next couple of days.
02:05And do some photography, walkabout.
02:09Anyway in the meantime I thought it's going to be a while before I am able to set my DSLR
02:16camera trap that I built the other week.
02:19To be able to set it up out in the field.
02:22Because I'm a little bit wary of leaving it out in the open around here because it is so well
02:27populated and well walked all the routes around here.
02:30And I haven't got any means of protecting it at the moment.
02:33So what I thought I might do is set it up in the garden as a test.
02:39Because the other night I set up, just out of interest, a trail cam up on the tree here.
02:45And facing back this way where the DSLR camera trap is facing.
02:53Just to see what might come into the garden.
02:56And lo and behold a little fox came running through.
02:59So with any luck it might be a regular route for him.
03:03So I thought it might be worth setting that up as a first test.
03:06A sort of semi-field test.
03:09And seeing if I might capture anything.
03:12So basically the camera trap is down here.
03:18And I got one light to flash for the subject.
03:24Whatever that might be.
03:25Fox or rabbit or anything else.
03:27There's another flash there.
03:29Which is aimed up into the trees to light the background.
03:34And the sensor is actually on the path just down here.
03:38Where am I there?
03:40So hopefully he'll walk up this path.
03:43And trigger the camera.
03:48So yeah.
03:49I shall be back in the morning.
03:51And hopefully we might have a couple of images.
03:54So I shall see you then.
03:59So hello again my friends.
04:01And it is evening again.
04:04Not morning like you might have expected.
04:06On the second day of garden camera trapping.
04:10And there's a blackbird just flew across.
04:13So I set up the camera trap last night.
04:16Looking down the path here.
04:18Where I had spotted with my trail cam.
04:21A fox coming down a little while ago.
04:26And he came back last night.
04:28But he didn't come down the path.
04:30He crossed over.
04:31So he came through the undergrowth here.
04:35And then crossed the path.
04:37And went off down the other side of the garden.
04:39So what I've done this evening is I've repositioned the camera.
04:44And I don't know if you can make it out.
04:46So the camera trap is here.
04:50With one of the flash units just above it.
04:53And on the other side is just there.
04:58Is another path which is the one that the fox came down last night.
05:02So I've got the camera directly opposite to it.
05:04Hopefully he'll come out to this point.
05:06And as soon as he does I have the sensor here.
05:09Down on the ground.
05:11There.
05:13Which hopefully will trigger.
05:15And the camera will get a shot of him.
05:18And I've set up the other flash unit.
05:21On the tree up here.
05:25To light up all this lovely grass.
05:29Behind the fox.
05:30Should he pop out this side of the path.
05:34Yeah.
05:35So that's the plan.
05:36At any rate.
05:37Hopefully this is a regular patrol for him.
05:42And he might come back again this evening with any luck.
05:45In which case hopefully we'll get a photo of him.
05:48So I look forward to the morning.
05:52To see if we've captured anything.
05:55And I shall see you then.
05:56I shall see you then.
06:52So, hello.
06:55Hello again, my friends, and you might have been expecting a morning video following my camera trap escapades in the
07:10garden, but it's actually the seventh night now that I'm setting it up in the garden.
07:18And the reason being that the other nights I've had some success in terms of the thing fired and it
07:28went off and the exposures were okay.
07:31But on one night it was very windy and I had 500 false triggers which drained the battery so I
07:42lost most of the night.
07:44And then what happened, oh, on the other occasions, even though so far I'd recorded the fox coming up in
07:52one direction, on the two occasions I managed to get a photo of him on the DSLR, he was coming
07:58up the other way.
07:58So I just got his tail end.
08:01So tonight what I've done is I've switched it around, so I now have the camera down here facing the
08:11other way up the path.
08:12I have the trigger down there and one flash there and another flash just behind me there illuminating the path.
08:22So my hope is that he'll follow what he's been doing the last few nights, which is coming this way
08:28down the path.
08:31But Murphy's law being what it is, he's probably going to walk up this way again now that I've switched
08:37everything around.
08:39So anyways, I've got tonight and tomorrow night that I'm going to have a go at as well.
08:47And then I'm going to have to call it a video so that I can publish this on the weekend.
08:53So fingers crossed, we managed to get something tonight or tomorrow that's really good with one of the animals actually
09:00facing the camera.
09:02So I shall catch up with you tomorrow or the day after, so I shall see you then.
09:07So good morning everyone, and I got the camera back out of the garden and unfortunately I didn't manage to
09:15get a photo of that fox.
09:16He didn't come back.
09:17I got a photo of a very cute hedgehog and a couple of blackbirds, but that was it.
09:25I will leave the camera out over the coming week in the hope that the fox might come back.
09:32But we'll see.
09:34And at least until I can find a decent location out in the field, which I feel is both safe
09:41and could be productive in terms of the sort of images that I'm after of wildlife.
09:45Um, but that's for a future video.
09:49Uh, in the meantime I thought I'd, I'd mention quickly as well, uh, how I dealt with, uh, my exposures.
09:57Um, so I set the, the camera was always on manual mode.
10:01Um, I should say that from the, um, start.
10:04And my thinking was to begin with that I would try and do as long exposure as possible, uh, in
10:12the hope that it would record some ambient light from, uh, moonlight, et cetera, uh, starlight, um, of the background.
10:20Um, and, uh, so I set the camera at half a second at f11 and the power on the flashes
10:28was at one 30 second power, uh, on both of them.
10:32And I got some nice exposures during the night, um, but during the changing hours of dusk and dawn it
10:38was really overexposing the images, uh, too much, way too much, um, to rendering them completely useless basically.
10:47Um, so, um, so the following few nights what I did was I, I increased my shutter speed to 50th
10:54of a second and dropped my aperture to f8.
10:58Again, leaving the power on the flashes exactly the same.
11:02And it gave me lovely exposures during the night, um, in fact I actually prefer those exposures.
11:07And also during the, the dusk and dawn, uh, the light was far more balanced, um, and actually they were,
11:15the, the images were usable.
11:17Um, so my thought is how to balance the two in terms of getting those shots at dusk and dawn,
11:24uh, decently balanced and then getting the longer exposures at night as well.
11:28So how, how does one do that or do you have to, will I have to just accept that, um,
11:34I'm either going for one or, or the other, um, and just accept the fact that the images at dusk
11:42and dawn will be blown out.
11:43Uh, I haven't tried, uh, using, uh, aperture priority or shutter priority mode, um, so that might be an idea
11:51as well to have a go at.
11:53But, um, uh, anyway, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts if you have, uh, any experience of it.
11:59Um, so please do leave a comment below if you have, uh, some ideas about that.
12:05Uh, yeah, so, anyways, I hope you've enjoyed watching this video.
12:10Um, don't forget to click on that like button if you have.
12:14Um, I'm really grateful for everything, for all the clicks that, uh, you've given me.
12:18It really does help with the, the whole YouTube thing.
12:21Um, and also don't forget to subscribe if you'd like to as well, if you'd like to see some of
12:26the future videos from myself.
12:28Um, yeah, so, thank you very much again for watching, uh, and I shall see you all next time.
12:35Bye.
12:51Bye.
12:53Bye.
13:03Bye.
13:03Bye.
13:03Bye.
13:03Bye.
