Blurry fox

I set up the TrapCam by a stone overlooking the river at Zackenberg, hoping I would catch a gyr falcon. I have observed the young gyr falcon using this and other stones as resting perches. Rather than capturing a falcon, I got this young arctic fox. The light level was rather low resulting in a long shutter speed and blurred movement, but I still think it has a good mood. Besides, movement blur is sooo trendy now!

Photo facts: August 21st 2013, Nikon D700, 17-35mm at 19mm, f/11, 1/15s, ISO 3200, Trailmaster 550 IR release, homemade Pelican case housing.

Hare trapping

An artic hare caught by the TrapCam set up in the river bed. I could have wished the hare to be more centered. My intention with this set up was to catch the fox as I had noticed fox tracks even before the snow fell. I did not have much luck with this however. Besides hare I caught a musk ox in the same trap.

Photo facts: Nikon D700, 17-35/2.8 at 19mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 200, Trailmaster 550 IR trigger, home made Pelican housing.

Mammoth musk ox

Musk ox bull captured in Zackenberg with one of my new camera traps incorporating the Snapshot Sniper II IR release.

Photo facts: 2013-10-19 08:06, Uncropped, Nikon D300, Sigma 10-20/4-5.6 at 10mm, 3 sec, f/11, ISO 3200, home made Pelican case housing and the Snapshot Sniper II.

Camera trap images

I am going through my camera trap images form the last two seasons. This one is a crop from an image using a setup with the 50/1.4 on the Nikon D300 and the Trailmaster TM550. I set the aperture rather open to f/4 and the focus must have shifted a bit as the carcass is only partly in focus. Luckily the raven in flight is in focus. The image breaks the rule of not having the horizon through the center entirely, but I still like it.

Memory questions - XQD or fast CF?

With all my planned camera trap activities for this season, I will need to buy some more memory cards for my cameras. I got a few relatively cheap 32 GB Sandisk SDHC 1 cards for the D3200 but my other trap cameras will need CF 1 cards. The file sizes a about half size of the 12MP cameras D700 and D300 so I am going with 16GB cards. Now I already had 3 of those but I will also need something for to use in the D4 and this is where the question arrises. Should I upgrade to the ultra fast XQD cards or go with cheaper but almost as fast CF cards like the Lexar 16GB 1000x ? If I go the XQD route I will also need a new card reader... The new readers are USB3 but my laptop only supports USB2, so I will not gain anything in reading time! I am considering a Firewire 800 reader but I will still have the USB2 bottleneck to the external hard disk intended to store the images... My laptop has a very fast thunderbolt connection but the peripherals to make use of it have been slow to show up on the market... On the other hand the new macbook pros does not have Firewire 800... Oh well!

Little image - big pride

I am very proud to announce that one of my musk ox photos taken in Zackenberg 2011 is being issued as a Greenlandic stamp on June 11th 2013. I made a little article about the image and my work in Zackenberg in the magazine Greenland Collector.

The magazine is also available in Danish and German. 

It is always great to see ones images on print in reports and books, but having a stamp made, feels very special. To accompany the stamp, Post Greenland is issuing a postcard (the image in the lower right corner from October 2012). I plan on bringing a bunch of these to Greenland to send to family and friends, and using the stamp of course...

Photo packing list for 3.5 months in the North and East Greenland Nationalpark

Bellow is what I am bringing (or shipping ahead).
I am planning on having 2 or 3 TrapCams going more or less all throughout the season, so 5 cameras aren't that much really... ;) and the cameras need lenses too obviously!

Cameras:
Nikon D4 (main full frame camera)
Nikon D700 (main TrapCam and doubles as backup full frame)
Nikon D300 incl. MB-D10 (main cropped camera and TrapCam)
Nikon D200 (Timelapse camera and backup TrapCam)
Nikon D3200 (TrapCam)

Lenses:
AF Nikkor 10.5/2-8 DX
AF-S Nikkor 14-24/2.8
AF-S Nikkor 17-35/2.8 (to be used with TrapCam)
AF-S Nikkor 50/1.4
AI-S Micro-Nikkor 55/2.8
AI-S Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8
AF-S Nikkor 70-200/2.8
AF-S Nikkor 200-400/4
AF-S Nikkor TC-14EII
AF-S Nikkor TC-20EIII
Sigma 10-20/4-5.6 (mainly for TrapCam use)
Lensbaby 50/2.8
Lensbaby Edge 80/2.8

Lens accessories:
PN-11 extension tube
Canon 500D close up lens 77mm (for 70-200/2.8)
Nikon Polarisation filters
Hoya 8 stop neutral density filter

Flash and flash gear:
1 SB-800
1 SB-900
1 SB-26 (as backup)
2 Pocketwizard plus III triggers
2 Pixel King i-TTL triggers
1 SC-17 TTL cable
1 SC-29 TTL cable

Support:
1 Gitzo tripod
1 Monfrotto tripod
1 Monfrotto monopod
1 Hilmer-Koch groundpod
1 Wimberley Sidekick
1 Acratech GP ballhead
1 Manfrotto ballhead
2 No-name ballheads
1 Manfrotto monopod head
1 Servocity wireless remote control pan and tilt gimbal head

Others:
1 Lastolite EzyBox TTL
1 Lastolite trigrip 8-in-1 small difuser/reflector
1 Thinktank Hydrophobia 300-600 raincover
1 Trailmaster TM550 PIR trigger
2 snapshot sniper triggers
Pelicases for Trapcams
Battery chargers
Various bags and pouches
Memory cards
Plenty rechargeable camera and AA batteries

Ironically, with all this equipment, I mostly walk with only one camera and two lenses plus tripod or monopod (mainly D4, 14-24, 200-400 and Gitzo)... because I also need to carry fieldwork equipment and radio, signal pistol and rifle.

New gear

Today, I picked up a new camera; a Nikon D3200. It is tiny and very light. I only bought the body and I want to use it in a camera trap. Therefore I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. Some day I would also like to make it airborne on a multicopter... During the easter holidays I will take it for a spin.

Arduino

I have gotten myself an Arduino Uno - open source electronics prototyping platform - in order to build some inexpensive camera traps and possibly write a small article about it to a photo magazine. The Trailmaster Infrared Trail Monitor model TM550 that I have used before is quite nice and customizable but it is not cheap @ 180 US$. A DIY solution building on Arduino will be much cheaper and perhaps even more customizable as one can program it. For instance the TM550 has a minimum wait time of 6 seconds after a triggering event. That can sometimes be limiting. With more cameras employed simultaneously, chances of success will be the increased immensely.

Also, I have ideas about making some PIR alarms for fox den surveillance as part of my fieldwork at Zackenberg in Northeast Greenland. We are supposed to spent a full day by all fox dens suspected of having pups, but it can be extremely tiring as long periods can pass without any activity or pups showing up. We do have camera traps at the dens but they don't catch everything and if things are happening behind the camera and their PIR sensors we will not know. With an Arduino based PIR alarm perhaps with multiple PIR sensors in opposite directions and with a radio link to an audio alarm close by the hideout some distance away, it will not be a disaster if one falls asleep or reads a book while on watch. 

RoboCam and TrapCam

The photo robot has been ready for action for long now, but I have not been able to use it. The big amount of snow are only now disappearing but it is still very wet in most placed. Besides it does leave some tracks and marks so I will probably only first use it in the autumn when the ground is frozen again. I am considering getting some special tires for loose snow - so-called sand paddles. I tested it in slush with no success! I was also tested on mid summers eve as part of the entertainment - with great success! I made a track and the camera was replaced with a shoe - to make people drive slower... I have had little luck with the photo trap until now. First I placed it at a raven carcass near a fox den, but I guess the pups were still too young and not exploring too much yet. I have had it placed at a few ponds and lastly where I photographed the musk oxen bull at last year - but this time in the middle of the green lush vegetation hoping for some close up chewing seen through the green stems. There has been a few musk oxen there but only few photos taken and in not so good light. The many fox pup photos we go through as part of the monitoring led me to try my luck with my own photo trap at a fox den. That should give some funny pictures as the pups are now growing fast and are very playful.

Musk Ox bull captured with remote camera trap

The ringed seal photo project got obstructed by too many polar bears on the ice... For safety reason we are supposed to move away from polar bears when we see them and not closer so I did not get any format filling photos. Rather than placing a remote camera at a seal hole I put it at a little pond near the research station where I had seen musk oxen forage for the lush green vegetation. After a few days the weather and light was good as an old musk ox bull went to the pond. I used a "retired" Nikon D200 with a 10.5mm fish-eye lens set to f/11 and on manual focus but with aperture priority exposure.