Egyptian Fruit Bat (C)

[Haim Ziv]

My first attempt to photograph a Bat inside research lab. This is the best I had from about 100 pictures for about an hour work.
The camera was on tripod with 35 mm lens, operated by remote control cable in my hand. On both sides run two speedlights wirelessly during the shoot. It was made almost in complete darkness when I'm standing behind a glass wall and the light coming in is very weak. Very hard to see something.
On my second attempt I (hope) will do much better. (first I'm going to change the BG)
Mark IV 16~35 mm at 35 mm f9 1/250 ISO1600

Thank you.

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Haim,
From your explanantion it would sound as though you had a difficult time, but practice defnitely makes perfect.
I like the detail but the chopped off wing does not add. Maybe an idea to take a wider angle and then to possibly crop.
Thanks for sharing and good luck,
Mark.

[Paul Taylor]

Very interesting effort. This is flying, right? (At first I thought it was hung - I apologise for that! :e3) And you are behind glass and the camera and speedlights are in the room? Presumably you are manually pre-focused?

If so, while I could tell you what is wrong with the picture I think you know that, and I think you did well to get this. Could a light background and some reflectors help -maybe set up so when the bat is flying one way it will be lit front and both sides? Also, if it's not cropped already the idea of a wider angle lens gives a better chance of getting the bat fully in frame when you got one in focus (any distortion might be very interesting, although it sounds like you're doing science, so perhaps not welcome).

[Haim Ziv]

Thank you Paul,
Yes he is flying.
I know very well what is wrong on this one and I hope that in my second attempt I will do better.
The lens is 16~35 and I used 35 mm for this one just because when it was in wide too many other things inside the lab was disturbing.
I will change the places of the speed light and I will cover the BG with big black sheet.
I'm working at Weizmann Institute of Science and I took the picture inside a research lab.

[Hilary Hann]

A difficult project and I have nothing I can add to help, but I look forward to seeing your next efforts.