The BeetleCam Adventures
Apr/27/10 10:08 Filed in: Art on the
web
Photographing African Wildlife from an unusual perspective.
Since
they are two DYI guys, they found a way to approach
wildlife photography from a new perspective: up
from the ground. Close up to animals big and small,
dangerous and friendly. Although that has been done
before with stationary cameras triggered by in
infrared beam, they decided to push this a bit
further.
So they set of to and simply invented their own approach by mounting a DSLR including two split ETTL flashes onto a four wheel drive remote buggy. This sounds a lot simpler than it actually was. A first prototype proofed to be very unstable and with just a few weeks to go to their planned trip to Tanzania, they had to re-design the setup to lower the centre of gravity. They also had to convince their Canon400D to cooperate with the controller they used for the buggy. Finishing touches on the design were to completely camouflage the camera and sealing the camera gear from the dust that they would be facing in the Tanzanian National Parks.
Once in Tanzania
Will and Matt learned quickly that approaching the
seemingly easy subject, Elephants, proofed to be a
rather difficult one. With their excellent hearing
and weariness to unknown subjects they acted rather
suspicious towards the approaching BeetleCam
vehicle. The solution was to park the buggy well
ahead of their path and wait for the Elephants
arrival. Apparently that worked well. These images
are absolutely stunning !
The second subject, Lions, was a lot easier to get Not only that, but within a short time of deploying BeetleCam and approaching the lions, the cats got really curious and decided to check it out - in private. They carried BeetleCam away into the bush. After a recovery mission Matt and Will could only rescue a lightly damaged BeetleCam but a totally ruined Canon 400D. They did manage to rescue the the memory card however which revealed some amazing photographs.
To continue with this mission, they had to mount their last camera, a Canon EOS 1d MK III on top of the fixed BeetleCam. Wow. That is really brave I would say. With this new setup they approached bachelor Buffalos - which have a reputation of being rather grumpy animals, but were actually nice models while Matt and Will were directing BeeleCam around them.
They returned happily back to the UK with many fantastic images in their luggage. Great work guys!
To see more of Matts and Wills African Wildlife photography, go visit their website. There you will also a more detailed report about their BeetleCam adventures.
This is some very exciting photography approach. I will keep an eye on Matt and Wills Burrad-Lucas website. They are apparently planning a trip back to Tanzania later this year with an all new revamped version of their vehicle: The BeetleCam Mark II.
I personally have many questions for them which will hopefully be answered in an interview in a few weeks. So stay tuned!
All photos shown in this article are Copyright Burrad-lucas.com. Images are used with permission.
So they set of to and simply invented their own approach by mounting a DSLR including two split ETTL flashes onto a four wheel drive remote buggy. This sounds a lot simpler than it actually was. A first prototype proofed to be very unstable and with just a few weeks to go to their planned trip to Tanzania, they had to re-design the setup to lower the centre of gravity. They also had to convince their Canon400D to cooperate with the controller they used for the buggy. Finishing touches on the design were to completely camouflage the camera and sealing the camera gear from the dust that they would be facing in the Tanzanian National Parks.
The second subject, Lions, was a lot easier to get Not only that, but within a short time of deploying BeetleCam and approaching the lions, the cats got really curious and decided to check it out - in private. They carried BeetleCam away into the bush. After a recovery mission Matt and Will could only rescue a lightly damaged BeetleCam but a totally ruined Canon 400D. They did manage to rescue the the memory card however which revealed some amazing photographs.
To continue with this mission, they had to mount their last camera, a Canon EOS 1d MK III on top of the fixed BeetleCam. Wow. That is really brave I would say. With this new setup they approached bachelor Buffalos - which have a reputation of being rather grumpy animals, but were actually nice models while Matt and Will were directing BeeleCam around them.
They returned happily back to the UK with many fantastic images in their luggage. Great work guys!
To see more of Matts and Wills African Wildlife photography, go visit their website. There you will also a more detailed report about their BeetleCam adventures.
This is some very exciting photography approach. I will keep an eye on Matt and Wills Burrad-Lucas website. They are apparently planning a trip back to Tanzania later this year with an all new revamped version of their vehicle: The BeetleCam Mark II.
I personally have many questions for them which will hopefully be answered in an interview in a few weeks. So stay tuned!
All photos shown in this article are Copyright Burrad-lucas.com. Images are used with permission.