One of the exceptionally unique things my photo tour group and I did in Costa Rica was to photograph bats in total darkness in the jungle. They were drawn to the nectar we placed in the flower, and there were so many bats flying all around us that often we'd capture two or three in the frame. An electronic beam, using the Range IR from Cognisys, was placed in front of the flower, and every time a bat broke the beam three flash units fired. We opened our shutters for two-second exposures -- continuously doing this over several minutes. In other words, every time the shutter closed we pushed the shutter button again for another exposure, hoping during that time to capture a bat at the flower. Sometimes no bats interrupted the beam during that two-second span of time, but most of the time we'd capture an amazing stop-action image of these very strange little creatures. The settings for this were f/13 and 500 ISO, and our cameras were about 6 feet from the flower. I used Canon's 100-400mm lens, and I prefocused on the flower using a flashlight. Once the flashlight was turned off, we couldn't see anything until the flashes fired. It was very eerie, very intriguing, and a fascinating experience. These are long-tongued bats, and you can see the tongue of the bat closest to the flower seeking the nectar.
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