Random Photography

Well, this blog was and perhaps is on the brink of obscurity! When I started it at the end of last year I had high hopes that I would be able to sustain regular postings and in so doing build a readership. I realize today as I write this that its been about 2 and half months since I've posted anything here!

I can cite many reasons for the lack of posts of late - my busy schedule, lack of interesting subjects, blogger's block, etc, however these are probably more likely excuses.

I guess what's more important right now, is whether this trend will continue. I hope not, but actions speak louder than words. For the next few posts I am going to go back to one of the original reasons I started this blog - to talk about photography.

This week I have been taking nature photos while at work! Under normal circumstances a statement like that shouldn't justify and exclamation mark. After all many people I know here in Kenya work in the outdoors and could quite easily take some snaps of their surroundings. I made use of punctuation as I was (for the most part) at my desk in mid-town Nairobi while these photos were being taken. I achieved this feat using trail camera.

Trail camera mounted in the tree above the bird feeder.

Trail cameras, also known as camera traps are digital cameras in weather proof cases that are triggered by motion or infrared signals. These cameras can be mounted in remote areas and are triggered by passing animals (or people). The model I have is able to shoot still photos (up to a 9-shot burst), and video in daylight and also at night using infrared lighting.

One of the more successful shots.

Like any new piece of kit, it requires some experimentation and practice to get the most out it. I have only had this unit for a few days (on loan from a friend), and so the results to date have been less than spectacular. One of the challenges is that the unit has no view finder requiring a literal "point and shoot" approach, made worse by only being able to see the results afterward when the results are downloaded. By example, yesterday due to an alignment that was probably 1 degree out I managed to shoot 830 photos of the lawn below the bird feeder! Another problem I'm experiencing is that very small animals don't seem to trigger the camera - quite a problem if the subjects are birds.

In the short term my remote photography will be limited to our garden and surrounds. I plan to mount the camera in one of the big trees near the house to try to catch the nocturnal Tree Hyrax population in action! In the longer term, I hope to use this the next time we are camping in the bush to see what nocturnal animals visit our camp at night. Watch this space and my Flickr stream for more results.