CameraTrigger

The abundance of insects over the last couple of months has been a perfect opportunity to experiment with different macro flash setups. Using a standard speedlight as-is isn't really an option, as the light is projected out much further than the front of the lens (which is exactly what you'd normally want a speedlight to do) and is much too harsh. There are therefore two problems that need to be solved; diffusing the light and directing it closer to the front of the lens. There are of course multiple commercial solutions available, such as the Canon MT24-EX or the Sigma EM-140 ring flash, but these are all relatively expensive and unlikely to be an option to anyone wanting to experiment with macro photography. A speedlight however is much less of a barrier to entry. A few different prototypes were made but the design I settled on was a light pipe style design that captures the flash light and funnels it down to the front of the flash. Of course, it would be ideal to hav...

The snow over the last few days has finally encouraged smaller birds back into the garden. Today saw starlings, blue & great tits, dunnocks, robins, black birds and even a goldfinch making visits so a perfect opportunity to try some high speed shots. Of course, wood pigeons were also making regular appearances. The laser setup is gradually becoming simpler through trial and error. The heavy duty tripods have been replaced with metal poles which are simply hammered into the grass. This speeds up setup time but also means less kit to replicate the setup. The aim for today was slightly different to previous tests. The laser wasn't aligned along the perch, it was instead set back about 10cm so that it would be broken by the bird on approach to the perch rather than after it landed. This would mean less shots, but hopefully the action shots that drove this project in the first place. This seemed to work and the results are quite encouraging. More experimentation is required to r...

The laser trigger module is the most useful gadget to come out of the camera trigger project so far. It is a simple board that controls up to two lasers with sensors to detect if the beams have been broken. The electronics involved in detecting a broken beam are very simple so using a microcontroller might at first glance seem to be unnecessary overkill, but using a microcontroller gives a significant amount of flexibility in a small and inexpensive package.

The box of tricks is a simple microcontroller based gadget and its purpose is to provide a way of detecting / recording / modifying or generating a signal. This simple set of requirements allows for a helpful set of features to be provided by single small gadget though. One of the driving factors behind this particular gadget was to allow a delay to be introduced to the signal sent to the camera. As mentioned previously , this opens up new possibilities and allows limitations with setups to be overcome. It also, when combined with the splitter , allows multiple cameras to capture the same event at different times which might increase the chance of getting 'the' shot. The picture above shows the board without a case. The headphone jack in the top left is the input, the jack on the top right is the output and there are buttons in each of the bottom corners. The display is a 3 digit 7-segment display that displays numbers and some letters. Choosing the display was one of the...

The test today was shooting at ground level. The aim here is to catch ground feeding birds but also to simplify the whole setup. A couple of metal poles were hammered into the grass instead of using multiple tripods. Since the birds are walking around they are moving relatively slowly, so the exposure becomes easier to manage too. Here is a shot of the basic setup. The camera in this test is a Canon 6d with a 100mm 2.8 lens.

One key moment that sparked life into this camera trigger project was sitting in the well known  kingfisher hide  waiting for a kingfisher to dive. The observation was that my odds of getting a shot at the right moment would be increased if I was using my second camera body at the same time. For diving kingfisher shots the focus is preset so operating two cameras at the same time shouldn't be a problem as only the shutter needs to be activated. A diving kingfisher, taken in August 2015