Finaly good bat pictures

[rdking647]

I finally got some good shots of the bats leaving the congress avenue bridge. the bridge hosts the largest urban bat colony in the country. an estimated 1 million bats live in the grooves under the bridge and emerge around sunset to feed. Ive been trying to get good shots of them and finally had success.











While i was shooting a night heron came by

[NV Whino]

1. Wow!

Love the silhouettes. Just wonderful shots.

[Speck Tater]

2. Very nice, but...

...that last one is the strangest bat I ever saw.

[rdking647]

4. a bat on steroids

[Celebration]

3. I second the silhouettes!

Those are fabulous!

[canonfodder]

5. I like bats

Getting a reasonably good close up of them in flight is a bear.
You did very well.

[rdking647]

7. it was a tough shot

i couldnt use autofocus since it was dark when i got to the top of the bridge. I couldnt see them in the view finder either. I ended up just guessing the distance and setting the lens focus accordingly. i used a flash and a 1/250 shutter speed to freeze them as best i could. i tooken dozens of shots,varying the focus. these were the best of about 50 shots. next time im going to go to the top of the bridge whil eits still lights and try and preset my focus,then shift to manual and wait.

[rdking647]

6. i reedited one of the photos

i cloned out the street lamp and reedited
[url=http://www.moonshine-images.com/Nature/Congress-street-bats/24805888_Hg59hx#!i=2034133923&k=JQL63m7&lb=1&s=A][img][/img][/url]

[Richard D]

8. Excellent

I love it. yet another reason that when Texas leaves the US we get to keep Austin.