tips for photographing animal tracks?

[Meesh Fink]

I could use some ideas for flash technique to get good contrasty photos of animal tracks. Side lighting with a diffuser or ????

Thanks!
Meesh

[Roger Clark]

Meesh,
I've never had a need for a flash for animal tracks. They always seem to have plenty of contrast with natural light, unless the sun is straight overhead. Example: lion track on a hike in Tanzania:
http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/travel/tanzania/hiking.tanzania/

I always put something next to the track for scale. A lens cap could work but what size is the cap? I usually use my pocket knife.

Roger

[Patti Edens]

Russell Graves, wildlife photographer, showed me how he shoots animal tracks when the lighting doesn't provide enough contrast. He does as you suggest - puts his flash on an off-camera cord and side lights the tracks from down very low, almost on the ground. He did not use a diffuser. There was a remarkable difference in the shots I took with available lighting and the ones he took.

Regards,
Patti

[Meesh Fink]

Meesh,
I've never had a need for a flash for animal tracks. They always seem to have plenty of contrast with natural light, unless the sun is straight overhead. Example: lion track on a hike in Tanzania:
http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/travel/tanzania/hiking.tanzania/

I always put something next to the track for scale. A lens cap could work but what size is the cap? I usually use my pocket knife.

Roger

Thanks Roger - I thought I posted a reply previously, but it's gone now... Sorry if this is a repeat. Anyway, I like your lion print! Most of the tracks I see are in soft dirt and there is very little natural contrast.

I do usually put the lens cap next to the track, or I carry a small broken off piece of a ruler and set it next to the tracks for scale. :-)

Cheers,
Meesh

[Meesh Fink]

Russell Graves, wildlife photographer, showed me how he shoots animal tracks when the lighting doesn't provide enough contrast. He does as you suggest - puts his flash on an off-camera cord and side lights the tracks from down very low, almost on the ground. He did not use a diffuser. There was a remarkable difference in the shots I took with available lighting and the ones he took.

Regards,
Patti

Thanks Patti, that is perfect information! I will try it next time I'm out. The diffuser info helps, too.

Cheers,
Meesh

[Eric Virkler]

Meesh, I've never needed to use a flash for tracks, but that could be because I never shoot tracks during the middle of the day. Early or late usually casts enough sidelighting to work for me. The previous flash suggestion should work if your tracks are in the shadow of a tree or such.

Roger, I'm not familar with tracks outside of North America. Your track interests me because the claws on the lion are showing. I've never run across that myself.

Eric Virkler
Faces of Nature Photography
www.ericjvirkler.com (http://www.ericjvirkler.com)

[Roger Clark]

Roger, I'm not familar with tracks outside of North America. Your track interests me because the claws on the lion are showing. I've never run across that myself.


Eric,
That's surprising. I've got a whole collection of animal tracks (but just the one on my website), and claws are common in my experience, from grizzly to coyote tracks, to birds. Loose, sandy soil is bad for recording the details, but often, with a little clay or water in the soil and if the track is fresh, there is a lot of detail. The lion track appeared to be only a few hours old and was in moist soil. A couple of miles from where I live there are dinosaur tracks on a former beach. Many claws show there too.

I've used tracks to track animals (for photography). It works especially well after a fresh snow too.

Roger

[Eric Virkler]

Sorry Roger, I didn't type as clearly as I meant to. The lion tracks surprised me because I've never before run across feline tracks with claws showing, since the claws are retractable.

Eric

[Roger Clark]

Eric,

That is an interesting point. I have a book on animal tracks of the Rockies (North America) and for many of the cat tracks no claw is shown. The entry for the mount lion is interesting. The test says "the retractable claws never register" but ALL the diagrams for the mountain lion show the claws. A little web research seems to say feline tracks usually do not show claws but sometimes do, especially a deep track, like in mud or snow. My lion track was in mud.

Roger

[Eric Virkler]

Roger, I'd never thought about it before, but I suppose it could make sense that the claws would show in deep mud or snow if they were slightly using their claws for traction in the slippery conditions.

Eric