Badgers are GO!

Hi Everyone. Sorry I have been so quiet, but I have been completely immersed in research, reccies, and badgers and am just starting to get the just desserts. This is my first ever badger photo! Well, one from a sequence anyway. This is a huge moment for me. Since I began wildlife photography, I had always dreamed of one day photographing wild badgers. To me, they are the quintessential British mammal.

I have opted for a very natural approach here: Arriving at the sett hours before sunset; leaving small morsels of food scattered around the sett; waiting for the badgers to emerge; firing off a single frame at a time so as not to scare them too much. I am wholly reliant on ambient light as I have decided against flash for the time being. I am not overly keen on flashed badgers - the images look quite surreal with a nocturnal animal bathed in bright light. Instead I have used high ISOs of 800 or 1000 and a 300mm f/2.8 lens. My shutter speeds are usually less than 1/100th sec, so I rely on a remote lead and sturdy tripod to minimise camera shake.

This was shot at 8:39pm and the sun had all but set. This years cubs always appear several minutes before the adults and are often called back inside the burrow by their mum. I have a window of about 20mins before it is too dark to focus. Then, I sit and wait and watch the badgers until it is too dark to see. Once they are back inside their burrow or dispersed, I leave the sett as quietly as I approached. Can't wait to get back there!

Super shot Elliot. Great pose and setting. Be careful though - Badger photography can be addictive



Paul

Well done Elliot.................a fine habitat shot, and well worth the patience/effort

Alan

I love badgers, used to film them in Portishead. Our torch went flat one night and we almost walked into two on the path back through the wood, not sure who was more surprised. Nice photo. You often will see foxes too when stalking badgers.

Bill

Lovely shot! I'd love to see a badger, let alone photograph one!

Nice to see a non-flashed badger! If you keep feeding, perhaps they'll be tempted to emerge a little earlier?

I helped on a badger territory survey. We put honey and peanuts with colored plastic bits outside each sett. So different colour for each one and during the day hunted out their toilets. These are usually at the boundaries of their territories. We then searched pooh for colored plastic and mapped out their territories from these. Sometimes there would be a toilet bordering four different territories. We also trapped badgers from each sett and with blood tests were able to determine family relationships. Absolutely fascinating. At the time not really into photography in a big way.

Nice Image but I think you could crop the dark leaves at the top.

brilliant, love it in every way

Great shot Elliott, have fun

Danny

Hi Elliott,

Beautiful image! Look forward to seeing some more!

Lovely badger shot Elliot and as you say, it's a lot better to have them without flash. I'm trying to encourage the badgers at a sette near me to appear during daylight but without any luck so far. To top it all the farmer has put a bull and herd of cows into the field so I'm going to have to stay out for a while.
Really like the vertical format on this with the tree creating a frame so I wouldn't crop at all.

Thanks for all the feedback - sounds like there is quite a lot of badgers experience here. I've been invited to document a Bovine TB cattle test next week as I am hoping to build a complete and current picture of the badger. I am sure some of the images will provoke comment, but that is the current climate we are in. I'm working closely with a farmer, vet and county ranger to get as many angles as possible. This is really the very beginning of a very long road.

Paul: Already addicted!!!!
Dawn: Yep, the more they get used to me, the sound of the shutter, and the food, the earlier they will emerge... to an extent. If I can just have them out 30mins before sunset it would be great.
Craig: Sorry, but I disagree. If I lose the leaves at the top, then I lose the broadleaf woodland context. There will be many more opportunities for close-up portraits... I hope!
Robert: My sett has a 3 bulls in at the moment so we stay out of each other's way. You really need to keep up the momentum, especially if the badgers are not used to human contact. I think you should be OK, just be careful wondering through in the dark

Elliot very nice, good to hear your getting to get images of some of your favourite animals. Its always good when you get to take time with a subject you love.

Its a bit of a loaded subject atm the Bovine TB thing.

I love Badgers (when I was a very small boy I used go badger watching with Gordon Burness who wrote about the albino badgers in a small copse near where we lived. The book was called 'The White Badger' but is now sadly, out of print).

Anyhow - to the pics. I love the framing and general decomposition. I hesitate to mention this as no-one else has, but it seems rather overly green to me to the extent of a colour cast on the coat. Is it only me that feels this (probably )

As i say though, great composition and well taken

Barrie

I like this just as it is, the composition works perfect with complimentary lines throughout, the dark leaves at the top balance the darker foreground colours nicely too, colours look about right on my monitor......... but its just that dreadful rock that looks like a house brick next to the Badger, I'd move that next visit!

Haha... I hadn't even noticed the rock - will move it next time. The colours are natural or "as is". I have kept them quite cool so they do look blue/green. But that was the scene as the light is filtering through a dense canopy of beech trees.

I've been busy for the past week so missed this and the other two shot's you've posted. Worth all the hard work.