INSIDE THE IMAGE
PINE MARTEN BLACK ISLE, SCOTLAND
I’ve been photographing pine martens in the Black Isle forest for several years, sometimes with a long lens from a small canvas hide, but mostly using camera-traps, which provide a window into the life of this shy, primarily nocturnal mammal that’s impossible any other way.
Camera-traps are basically digital SLR cameras inside a weatherproof box. The shutter is tripped when the subject breaks an invisible beam or activates a motion or heat sensor. These cameras can be left out for days or weeks where the target species is likely to pass by.
LIFE IN THE TREES
Pine martens are arboreal and have flexible hindpaws and powerful semi-retractable claws that allow them to move in the canopy with consummate ease. I wanted a dynamic, head-on shot to show this, while still placing the marten in its environment – a naturally regenerating Scots pine forest. I fixed a camera beside a squirrel feeder that was being visited by an individual looking to add a few peanuts to its omnivorous diet. As an extra incentive I added a couple of eggs and a dash of honey. Clamping a camera and two flashes 5m up a tree swaying in the wind proved tricky; in fact the tree was moving so much that it kept triggering the beam. Eventually, conditions calmed enough for me to position the beam sufficiently far from the trunk yet close enough that the marten would trip it.
1 FINDING FOCUS
With the camera set to manual, I pre-focused the lens to a spot slightly above where the infra-red beam is positioned. This is to compensate for the slight time lag between the marten breaking the beam and the camera firing. These animals move fast, so this can be several centimetres.
2 DEPTH DECIDER
I chose a small aperture to ensure that the eyes and paws would be in focus, and that the background would retain enough detail to show the marten’s forest home.
3 POLE POSITION
As I was using a wideangle lens, camera position was critical. Too close to the tree and I wouldn’t have captured the marten’s eyes or body properly; too far away and I’d have lost the perspective of looking directly down the trunk. The camera also had to be central or the tree would have fallen away at an odd angle.
4 DOUBLE VISION
Two flash units were used to light the marten. These were placed as far apart as possible and the same distance from the tree as the camera to avoid casting shadows across the animal’s bib.
5 BACKGROUND LIGHTING
As this image was taken in darkness, it was important to light the background. Initially I used two flashes, one across the flowering heather and another on a young pine to the right (just cropped out here), but ended up removing the flash from the pine as it was picking up enough light from the flashes up the tree.