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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
At a first quick glance when you see this kind of scene you think of Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”. I think Hitchcock might have done even better with a movie called “The Bats”. People tend to be a little more hesitant with bats, than with birds. This shot is of a swarm of bats at Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens. They weren’t getting ready to go out for the night, they were just restless, and settled down very soon after this shot was taken. These bats are larger than what people are used to in North America. They are called Grey Headed Flying Foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus). Some can attain a wingspan of up to a metre.
There are two types of bats, the flying-foxes (mega-bats) and their relatives, and the insectivorous bats (micro-bats). These two types of bats appear to have evolved separately, making them distinct groups of mammals. The ancestors of today’s flying-foxes may have evolved from a primitive primate meaning humans and flying-foxes may actually share a common ancestry.
Unlike the micro-bats which are the little insect eating animals that fly around using sound, or echolocation, in place of eyesight, these mega-bats have excellent eyesight, they roost in trees and do not go into buildings, they are vegetarians and they are awake and active in winter, not going into hibernation or torpor. Micro-bats, on the other hand, have poor eyesight, often roost in buildings, eat insects, and go into a form of hibernation in winter.
Much of this from:
http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/nature_conservation/wildlife/native_animals/living_with_wildlife/flyingfoxes/ and http://www.bellingen.com/flyingfoxes/bats_or_flying_foxes.htm
Workflow was as follows:
Shot at f5.6, 1/350 sec @200mm. It’s a group (swarm) shot so depth of field and speed for this one wasn’t my primary concern, still next time I see something like this I’ll try to increase my ISO to give myself some more latitude on my aperture and speed – shot in Raw
NEF file adjusted for shadows and highlights
Adjusted levels
Adjusted RGB curves
Adjusted colour with curves (mainly sky and clouds)
On background layer selected bats and used smart sharpen to sharpen them a little
Saved as tiff
Cropped, resized and sharpened with smart sharpen for this post |
lovenature, Argus, claudine, garyfudge, arfer, marhowie has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekNature members may rate photo notes. |
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Oh how cool is this! Wow so many bats and they look so large compared to our little brown bat we have here. Nice capture John and interesting notes.
TFS Janice
- Argus
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2386 W: 135 N: 6641]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(20617) - [2007-02-21 3:54]
- [+]
Hello John,
When we visited the Botanical Gardens it was in the middle of the day when these guys were hanging out sleeping, so it is nice to see a shot of them in flight. Your shot is sharp and the different POV's of several individuals gives us a fair idea of wwhat they look like in flight.So thanks for this one!
Regards, Ivan
Hello John,
This must have been very impressive to see all those bats at the same time, I don't know if I would have liked it. I always have the impression that those guys don't know where they are flying. I saw many of them here and in this National Park where I use to camp. This is a very good capture and we can appreciate details on some of them which is not easy with this dark color. TFS,
Claudine
A good shot.
I knew it couldn't be Hitchcock's birds, I've already shot them!
Gary
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- arfer
(29106)
- [2007-02-21 22:38]
- [+]
Hello John
Wow,that's a lot of bats.Good shot ,I don't usually see bats in daylight.A very good documentation photo.TFS
Rob
Hello John! How great is this, flying foxes! Interesting to see all the flight/wing formations. Marvellous to see! TFS! Linda
Hi John,
Your note is great.
The photo goes to show, if you don't have it to start with, no amount of post processing can help..
Sorry, just being frank. Hard to come by around here.
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 181 W: 5 N: 320]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif){kind=small}