Thermal camera reveals moose “hiding” in a foggy field
In the beginning of summer, i tried the thermal camera in several different contexts, but i feel the most that it has been useful to make sure that there are no heat marks in the area.
Now for moose /deer season, not for hunting but for nature photography, i found a completely new use environment for the thermal camera, namely summer nights with fog.
Hazy and bright summer nights
Today’s advanced camera technology with high apperture lenses makes it possible to shoot almost through the night in certain conditions in midsummer. Now i was on the move on a foggy night hours before sunrise.
I explored the foggy fields in the area in the dark and quickly got a reliable situation assessment of each field with the help of a thermal camera. Some of the fields were covered in such thick fog that it was impossible to be sure if there were animals feeding in the middle of the fog. This is important information, because this forms a reliable situation, from which is the photographing plan for the next following hours.
In the past, this has been more difficult, but using a thermal camera in these conditions is much easier.
Checking of the main field
The morning light hits this field well, so it was very interesting. Just because the moose are there at night doesn’t mean they won’t be there again in the morning when the sun rises. However, the knowledge of moose gives the possibility that someone will stay there until good light. Often the moose can be right at the edge of the field eating leaves, so spotting them against the dark background is almost impossible.
Lounging moose
Moose also sometimes lie down in the field at night. Therefore, they can be very difficult to notice. The picture above was taken from the car window with a OnePlus 11 mobile phone, which has a good camera for low-light photography as well. The cell phone has become an increasingly powerful tool for documentation, and the pictures taken with it are also constantly on my blog.
Below, a picture taken with a 110mm focal length with a system camera, and below it, a thermal camera picture of the same spot. The moose in the background are hard to distinguish.
The video below, which illustrates well the observation view, as well as the pictures I took from the same place at night. There was also plenty of time to explore the different color modes of Pulsar’s Axion2 XG35.
Double calfs
In the next field, there was a queen far away with double calfs. I managed to photograph the family this night, but by the end of the summer I couldn’t find them anymore. The other option is of course that I just haven’t noticed the other calf on later trips and thought the mother and calf were from a different family.
In this situation, I would have liked to have the calfs with the mother a little closer and in better light, but that was now left to the wish level. Instead, the fog moved and got so thick that the shooting connection was lost.
A moment later – looking for a new situation
I scanned the area with the thermal camera and the forest below caught my attention. At its edge was a moose coming from left to right and went into the forest. It was impossible to see with the eye and it is not visible in the picture below either.
In the old days, I would have left this place because there was nothing to photograph. Now when i saw a moose in the forest and its movement, I knew how to expect it to come out of the forest and into the field.
The image shows a combination of the two top images, i.e. what the digital camera sees and what the thermal camera sees.
I hoped that the moose would come out of the forest into the misty field against the beautiful sky. I started to compose the image with 70-200 mm, what kind of cropping and ensured the exposure. A couple of times I looked into the forest with the thermal camera before the moose silhouette came out of the forest.
I took the pictures i had planned of the moose, but unfortunately the moose didn’t cross the field but went further away, somewhere where the mother and calfs had disappeared in the fog.
Great situation, many good compositions quickly recovered!
