the bats of austin

[rdking647]

austin has 1.5 million bats living under a bridge that come out at night I tried to take photos last night. Im not real happy with the results but im not sure what to do to improve them. i could try a faster lens but the depth of field may be to small at a wider opening. I tried cranking up the ISO . Focusing itself was a problem since the bats are small and fast and the light is very poor

[postatomic]

1. So, that's where Sarah Palin keeps all her shit

Pretty amazing example of nature and us humans. Looks like you have some nice architecture as well. Want to visit someday. Downtown looks interesting as well as the bats.

[Mira]

2. The bats of Austin, which you have captured really well it seems are not

something I ever want to experience. I like your photos, creepy as they are now that I know we are dealing with bats.
Is there something about black dark birds and Texas?

I have been to Fort Worth for conventions about 3 times. Each time I was astounded by the seas of black birds, often covering parking lots to make them black, and crowding in trees to such degrees that they also were black, and in smaller trees to where I was scared to walk under them.

When I asked people: "what about all the birds?" they would stare at me and say "what birds?"

That's why I'll do without seeing the bats of Austin. But I too like the look of the Architecture. It looks Art Deco to me, and I love that! Yet, not enough to brave the bats.
We have wonderful art deco in Charlotte.
:)

[rdking647]

4. the bats are a huge asset

they eat an estimated 20,000 lbs of mosquitos A NIGHT.

[Mz Pip]

3. Those look like really BIG bats.

We have lots of bats around our country cabin but they are small, around the size of a sparrow. They create lots of problems because they can squeeze into very small cracks in peoples houses, nest, reproduce and make a big stinky mess. Our neighbor's place got infested with them and hundreds of them started pouring out through the ceiling ducts one night. Scared the living daylights out of them.

Another house down the road had tens of thousands of them in the attic. They had to remove the roof to get them out.

Now that I've creeped you out, let me say that I think you did an admirable job photographing those fast moving creatures.

[rdking647]

5. they are mexican free tailed bats

they are only 3 1/2 inches long and weigh 1/2 an oz
but there are 1.5 million of them under the bridge

[NV Whino]

6. I woke up to a little fellow clinging to my bathtub the other day

Somehow he had escaped from the cats and lived to tell the tale. I got a paper towel, grabbed him and released him into the garden.

[intheflow]

7. The second shot is your best, I think.

You can really tell those are bats and not birds, there are some very crisp outlines.

I think something like this needs a long lens, a tripod, a timer, and a high ISO. The lighting is tricky, and to get the kind of photo you probably want demands more planning and set-up than just taking the camera out in the evening. (Which is what I do and am never satisfied... but I'm too lazy to noodle around with tripods.)

[rdking647]

8. i had a tripod

i used a very high iso (up to iso 4000_. I found a long lens didnt work as well. i was using an 18-270 zoom and these were taken around 60mm or so