Trail Camera Photography

One of the first lesson's that I learned was that just because you put up a camera doesn't mean the animals will walk in front of it. I put a camera out at the edge of the trees on our property and waited a week to see the amazing pictures I would have only to find that I had 10 pictures of the same squirrel who just happened to live in that tree. That's when it hit me, I had to put the camera where the animals walk every day. This meant finding their travel routes from bedding areas to food sources. This is actually more fun than it is work.

I found a deer trail and followed it until it crossed another trail. As I looked around the area I found 4 other trails that led to the same general area so I put up a corn feeder and placed the camera on the tree about 30 ft. away. Some of these camera's have an effective flash range of 50 ft and the motion detector has about the same range. You need to clear the field of view for the camera because the motion detector will catch limb movement on windy days and you don't really want 100 pictures of nothing.

Once you clear the brush, attach the camera to the tree with the strap provided. Be smart about what you want pictures of. I usually take pictures of deer so I set the camera about 3 - 31/2 ft off the ground. To get smaller animals set it lower. Make sure you have new batteries and that you have set the right date and time for the time stamp, set the time delay and then securely close the front of the camera. Now you are ready for years of great pictures not to mention all the time you'll spend outdoors..

Have fun and good luck.

All trail cams are pretty straight forward when it comes to setting them up. You set the date, time and how often you want the camera to take a picture. Delay settings of 30 seconds,1 min, 5 min, 15 min or 30 min are common. Some camera's have day time options like 12 hour or military time. You can set trail cam to take pictures whenever something triggers it or just during the day time or night time hours. Some camera's even have calls recorded into them to lure animals to the camera. One of the first camera's I owned was the Bushnell Trail Cam Pro which had 8 calls recorded. There was bull elk and moose calls, and even an antler rattle sound to attract whitetail bucks during the rut. There are a lot of options to look at when you thinking of buying a camera but I found over the years that simpler, for me at least, is better.

That is why I now use the Cuddeback Capture camera. The Capture is an older model, I've had mine for 4 years, but all I have to do is set the time, the date, and photo option and I'm done. I find a tree close to a trail or by a feeder I made, and strap the camera on and leave. It has a very fast shutter speed so I get more pictures of the whole deer than I do of their rear ends.

I check it once a week and usually just trade out the memory stick. I take the memory card home and download the pictures onto my computer. I average 250 to 350 pictures per camera per week. The camera takes 4 D-cell batteries that usually last for around 2000 pictures.If the weather where you are is very cold the battery life will be less. Cuddeback makes a viewer that you can carry with you and see what is recorded right there at the camera.

Cuddeback has come out with the new Attack IR 5mp trail camera. Other companies like Moultrie, Primos and Stealth Cam all have good cameras, you just have to decide what will work best for your needs. I use mine out in the country but they will work the same if you put them in your backyard. They work great in the rain or snow or even fog sometimes. They really are all-weather camera's. Some of the camera's take pretty good quality video as well. They won't record hours but they can be set to capture 15 seconds to a minute or so at a time, depending on the make and model of the camera.

With the camera set in the trees along a well worn trail you can get some really great pictures that would be very difficult to get with a hand held camera. Bucks are too wary, so unless you have a few hours to spend sitting very still, I found it is easier, and just as much fun, taking pictures with a trail camera. I set the cameras on trails leading from bedding areas to food sources. They get used to the click of the camera and the flash at night quickly.

You can see the different personalities of the deer by their reaction to the camera. Some shy away while others seem to pose. I have multiple shots of the same deer walking up to the camera week after week. It's like they know what the camera is and they want to get a close-up.

It's not often you see a big buck like this out during the day. This picture was taken late in the rut, which is the mating season, at 10:45 am at the end of October 2011.