Stolen Cameras

For years I have been using custom built, remote camera systems to photograph elusive and nocturnal subjects.

I can still remember how elated I was to photograph a wild, nocturnal mountain lion at Zumwalt Prairie a few years back. Wild mountain lions are almost never photographed unless they have been trapped or cornered by dogs, so this image was a particular accomplishment.

wild cougar (felis concolor) photographed at night.

From mountain lions to white-footed mice, I have refined the system constantly over the years to allow me to photograph a variety of subjects in a variety of situations.

white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)

Perhaps one of the most common subjects, by default, have been raccoons. They seem to be everywhere.

a nocturnal raccoon (procyon lotor) on a game trail, arizona.

My systems are considerably more advanced and complicated than the average trail camera that can be purchased at Cabella's, and they often use fairly expensive digital cameras for image capture.

I have always known it was risk to leave this equipment out in the forest for weeks at a time. I would always evaluate the risk, and make a judgement call.

Despite being aware of the risk, I was a bit surprised to find my equipment stolen when I set up on a log bridge in Washington State. This is a remote location, and far off any trail. The equipment would have been very hard to spot tucked away under a fallen log.

Whoever stole the equipment smashed the weatherized camera housings, and then re-assembled them nearby – laid out neatly on a log. A message perhaps? The cameras were of course, gone. 

Below is the final test image taken before the equipment was stolen.

I have since built a new system, with some major improvements. Hopefully I can hang onto this one for a while.

A Bull Elk Emerges From The Shadows

On a miserable, rainy night along the coast one of my remote cameras photographed a spike bull roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti) walking along a muddy elk trail.



One of the reasons I use remote cameras is because they allow me to take photographs where no sane photographer could possibly pull it off. I had the cameras in place for six days before these photographs were taken. The nights were frigid and dark, and yet the cameras waited patiently.



Water on the lens makes this elk appear as if it is emerging from the ghostly shadows of a nocturnal forest (above).

I pulled the cameras after they were in place for 10 days, primarily because of a massive series of storms moving in from the Pacific. The weather had already been bad, and I had experienced several technical problems, and near destruction caused by water in the past.

My remote camera system has new waterproof connectors, and better weather housing, but I wasn't quite ready to leave it in the flood plain of a small creek.

In one image, the elk passed extremely close to a camera placed very low.



Just inches from the muddy ground, the camera lens received a coating of muck.

Camp Bonneville Bears

The Columbian recently ran a story about the clean up of the old army training grounds at Camp Bonneville in Washington. I was glad to read that a good portion would become a wildlife preserve. A couple years ago I recieved special permission from the army to set up remote cameras on the property and got some pretty cool shots of bears. One is a brown phase black bear taken in the dead of night (good thing too, the black ones don't show up so well in the dark).

The place is littered with un-exploded ordinance, some from the 1940's. I had to sign a waiver agreeing that I would not hold the US Army responsible for death or injury....