First spider pictures and now bats, what is this site becoming?

Zeke and I were out for a walk the other evening and on the way back I noticed five bats flying back and forth along a tree bordered stretch of road. Since it was still twilight I could watch them fly overhead without any problem and since it was a narrow corridor it was much easier to keep track of a single bat.

Which, of course, means you could follow them with a camera.

I ran back to the house, hooked up the flash and the fastest lens I have and ran back to the bat show. Standing in the middle of the road I'd track the bat and fire off a shot as it flew overhead. It was pretty dark so auto-focus was out of the question. Instead I turned auto-focus off and manually focused on something about the same distance as the overflying bats to lock in the distance.

It was a lot of fun. The bats didn't seem to mind the flash. Each time the flash fired I could see the clouds of insects they were thinning. The round blob you see in the photos is an insect about to become a snack.

If you want to attempt this with a camera that doesn't have manual focus, try the following:

• set your camera on a mode with flash (portrait is fitting)
• find big leaves or something easy to focus on at about the same distance from the bats flying over
• shine a bright flash light at the spot (to help the camera focus)
• point the camera at the spot and press the shutter button down halfway: this locks in focus
• keeping the button held down halfway, point overhead where you expect a bat
• when the bat flies over push button the rest of the way
• keep trying...