Tube-lipped tailless bats (Anoura fistulata), Andean cloud forest, Ecuador
Bats are great pollinators as evidenced by the yellow pollen smeared on the neck of the bat on the right. In 2019 I traveled to Chile for the eclipse and took the opportunity to go to Ecuador afterwards for a hummingbird shoot. Once the sun sets then the bats come out, which made a perfect subject for my recently published book Night on Earth. You don’t have to be quick on the shutter to photograph the bats — lasers do all the heavy lifting once you’ve set up your shot. You let the bats enter the photographic plane rather than chasing them around. This shoot required multiple flashes and cameras set up with laser sensors. I was very pleased with the results to say the least.
I used the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens at f/16 for 3.2 seconds, ISO 400.
