More Fox!

Ron NiebruggePhotos 1 Comment

Gray Fox, Desert Photo Retreat, Tucson, Arizona.

Gray Fox, Desert Photo Retreat, Tucson, Arizona.

So my write up on yesterday’s post unfortunately was omitted.  But as you may have guessed, last week a built a third blind, one with an elevated reflection water table that I’m really excited to try!  I have also been trying to get some different fox images.

I noticed the fox sometimes uses this rock out-cropping as a lookout over the canyon and our camp. So I decided to set my camera up there for something different.

The fox makes multiple visits to the water hole every night, but this spot was not nearly as popular. I made many trips up and down the mountain in the dark with camera gear over three nights – one time at mid-night thanks to an unexpected rain, but last weekend he finally showed up! Next time I hope to get his whole body, but it is a good start.

Great Horned Owl

Ron NiebruggeArizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 3 Comments

Great Horned Owl, Desert Photo Retreat, near Tucson, Arizona.

Great Horned Owl, Desert Photo Retreat, near Tucson, Arizona.

A pair of Great Horned Owls nest on our property – we enjoy listening to them at night. On occasion, they will bath in the water hole. Last night, I was set up with my remote camera trap when one came in for a bath!  He actually climbed into the water and splashed around, but unfortunately those images were inside my focus point.  I never know for sure where to focus and usually chose the waters edge.  When you are just 2 feet from the subject, I have very little depth of field.  Here I went with f/8, which gives me about a foot of depth of field, but I lose a lot of stars at this aperture.   I could pick up a lot more stars at f/2.4 or wider, but then I have even less DOF.

This was with a Canon 5d III (don’t want to risk my newest camera!), 24 Rokinon manual focus lens set at f/8, iso 1600, 20 second exposure and two off camera Nikon SB-28 flashes manually set to 1/32 power.  Triggered this time with a Camtraption trigger.  I also use Camtraption wireless triggers for the flashes.

Starry Fox

Ron NiebruggeArizona, Photos, Tucson Leave a Comment

Gray fox under the stars, Desert Photo Retreat, Arizona.

Gray fox under the stars, Desert Photo Retreat, Arizona.

This was last night with my camera trap.  Working on capturing the stars at the same time as the fox in a single exposure.

Scott’s Oriole

Ron NiebruggeArizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 1 Comment

Scott's Oriole, Desert Photo Retreat, Arizona.

Scott’s Oriole, Desert Photo Retreat, Arizona.

A Scott’s Oriole on a tree outside our RV a few minutes ago.  Guests have reported seeing three Bullock’s orioles this week – the migrants are definitely beginning to pass through!