sGray-headed and black flying foxes, with one caught in mid-yawn. I exposed for the sky with center-weighted metering and used the flash on manual, set for maximum output. The aperture determined the proper exposure of the flying foxes, while the combination of aperture and shutter speed was responsible for the right exposure of the background.

My daily routine during this time consisted of shooting from around four in the morning until about 10 o’clock, when the light became too harsh. Then I climbed down from the hide for a few hours’ rest. In early afternoon I returned to the hide to observe and photograph until dusk. Initially a few of the flying foxes were disturbed by my movements up and down the ladder, but they quickly settled back into their trees, realizing that I meant no harm.

Even with the tarp in place, they were aware of my presence, but as time went by they became increasingly used to me. In fact, the tarp was quite useless for concealment--but not for protection. Remember that hundreds of the flying foxes hung above me in the tree and…well, you get the idea. The tarp protected me very well, but the front end of my lens was a different story; it needed constant cleaning.

Flying foxes are very territorial. In the mornings when they returned, they often fought briefly over roosting sites. When another flying fox landed too close, there would be a quick skirmish and usually the intruder went away. Sometimes “away” meant just a foot or so on the branch. When I refer to “roosting site” I mean not only the tree, and not only a specific branch, but a specific part of a specific branch. Generally, though, the flying foxes are very friendly toward each other, and there is little aggression.

When they roost, they do not keep their eyes closed for hours at a time. They wake up, look around, see what is going on--especially when a bird of prey circles above--and then go back to sleep when the danger is gone. Due to the long hours I spent in the hide, I was able to photograph them during those moments of alertness.

Red flying foxes in a tightly clustered roosting group, a typical behavior for this species. They were only about 20’ away from me and followed the movement of the big lens with curious eyes. Although they were lit by the first rays of the morning sun, the natural light was not sufficient to reduce the contrast between their dark shapes and the bright blue sky, so I had to use fill flash.

The amount of equipment I required forced me to make two trips up the ladder each time to bring my 60 lb backpack, camera case, and tripod to the platform. Most of the pictures, however, were taken with just one lens--a 600mm f/4 Nikkor AF-S. The flying foxes were as close as 20’, sometimes less, but for format-filling portraits I still needed the 600, often with a 1.4 tele-converter. I used both an F5 and F100, and my film was Provia 100 F, which is the best film I’ve ever used for wildlife photography because of its extremely fine grain even when pushed one stop. My tripod is a Gitzo Mountaineer with an Arca Swiss ball head.

One of the reasons photographing flying foxes is a challenge lies in the difficulty with lighting. Since flying foxes are very dark and the sur-rounding area usually several stops brighter, it’s a real problem to get good exposures. Although I generally prefer only natural light in my photography, the key piece of my equipment during the flying fox shoot was an SB-26 Speedlight, which I often used for fill flash. If my subjects were too far away for the flash, even at full output, I used a Kirk Flash X-Tender, basically a Fresnel-lens magnifier that increases the flash unit’s range. The general light conditions determined my flash output setting. On an overcast day, with soft ambient light, TTL flash metering with a compensation of minus 11/3 stops produced the best results. When I photo-graphed the flying foxes against a bright background, I had to use plus compensation. In any case, I made sure to bracket the flash unit’s light output, as it’s pretty much impossible to predict the perfect balance between ambient light and fill flash. Experience is good, but control is better! Never trust your experience alone, and always control the situation by eliminating errors. In this case, control was achieved with bracketing.

Theo Allofs is a widely published wildlife and nature photographer. He has three coffee-table books to his credit in addition to numerous images featured in “International Wildlife,” “American Photo,” “Outside,” and “BBC Wildlife Magazine,” among other publications. His international awards include two top prizes in the prestigious BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. “Daybreak 2000,” published by Northword Press, is available now. Readers can see more of Allofs’ work on his web site at: www.naturbilder.de/allofsenglish. Beginning with this issue, Great Outdoors will appear on a bimonthly schedule in the magazine.