Equipment

In case you're wondering what photography equipment I use, here is a list:

• Canon EOS 300D
• Canon EF-S 18-55 mm
• Vivitar Series 1 100-400 mm
• Quantaray 100-300 mm
• Quantaray 2X Teleconverter
• Tripod
• Fluorescent Lantern

For taking pictures of slugs and other creatures at night, I normally carry my EOS camera and 18-55 mm lens and use the camera's built-in flash and my fluorescent lantern for light. Unfortunately I'm unable to use AF in such low light, so I have to revert to MF, which is bothersome but if there's enough light the camera should still alert you when you have the subject in focus.

If I have to photograph, say, a spider high up in her web, I'll mount the camera on a tripod, set my lantern in an effective location (experimenting is usually required), switch to a longer lens such as my Vivitar plus a teleconverter, and use the flash. Long-distance nighttime shots are awkward, and as I've said before, you often have to guess unless you have really good lighting. But with a spider, you need to keep things as dark as possible so you don't scare her away.

In the daytime, I can use all manner of lenses without worrying about lighting, except on really cloudy days and in shady locations. In such dark places I usually turn on the flash (still in AF) just to make sure I get a clear shot. Otherwise I'm able to operate in AF with a high shutter speed, sometimes as high as 4000 in bright sunlight, which is useful when your subject is moving quickly.

I suppose I'm blessed with small stature (thought at times I'd rather be taller), because it enables me to get into small places, crouch down very low, and contort myself into all kinds of uncomfortable positions to get the perfect shot of that tiny insect that's so fascinating! My knees and back take quite a beating, though, so that after a long night of "slugging" I often feel much older than my twenty-one years.

Whenever I encounter a sick or injured creature, or one that is tangled in something, I not only chronicle the incident with my camera, but also use a pair of tweezers (or in lieu of that, a twig) and disposable gloves to either treat or investigate it.

For difficult photo sessions, see:
A Halloween Treat - By Day
A Halloween Treat - By Night
Eastern American Toad
Gray Tree Frog - Part 1
Gray Tree Frog - Part 2
The Mystery Continues
(Pretty much all slug sessions are difficult on the body, so you'll have to browse through those posts yourself; they're too numerous to list here.)

For discussions of rescue missions, see:
Rescue Mission
Another Rescue
A Sluggish Houseguest

I've recently added a Samsung HMX-F80 camcorder to my equipment!
Camcorder