Shootin' Gators!

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Clay!

Tell us about shootin' Gators down in the Bayou!! Sounds like a fun thing to come down and do with you. Will they eat us alive? Do we use polecams? Sounds like a fun expedition!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

I want to see one of these!! (Clay's shot from the attack Gator thread)

http://claycoleman.tripod.com/bd5bcd00.jpg

[Clay Coleman]

Ok, Jonathan, I'm happy to regale you with tales from the bayou! One of my favorite places is the Spanish Lake catchbasin swamp, which is about 15 minutes from my house. Alligator Bayou is one of the drains from the swamp, and it is generally easy to find 'gators there in spring and fall (hyacinth and hydrilla weed makes the area inaccessible to an outboard in summer). The animals can be quite large (13 footer hangs out only a few hundred yards from the boat launch). Sometimes they're approachable, sometimes not. The water is dark with tanin, but viz can be a foot or two. I generally drift or sail my bateau to get close to animals on the bank:
http://claycoleman.tripod.com/a23bbd10.jpg
Animals in the water are usually harder to approach, but they might pop up anywhere:
http://claycoleman.tripod.com/bb8bcd10.jpg
I'm friendly with the owners of the Alligator Bayou boat launch, and they have a private pond with 'gators that they show to tourists. I've never arranged to shoot the private pond, but I could inquire. See www.alligatorbayou.com
Another good place is Avery Island, which is south of Lafayette. It's about a 2 hour drive from my home. The gators there are smaller, more colorful, and can be aggressive:
http://claycoleman.tripod.com/bd9bbd00.jpg
Avery Island is a park with a small entrance fee, and the 'gators are sometimes on short grass around ponds and very easy to shoot. This would be a good area to try a pole-cam since you could work from a bank. We'd have to clear it with the park people, but they've never bothered me even when I get very close to their 'gators.
Speaking of close, some animals will allow you to get practically on top of them. The reflection in this 'gator's eye is Alligator Bayou, and you can see me standing in my boat to take the shot (reflections in 'gator's eye are closer than they appear!):
http://claycoleman.tripod.com/b31bbd20.jpg
I have no idea how these animals would react to a pole-cam or what the viz would allow you to see. Jesse Cancelmo and I have been searching for an area to shoot alligators in clear water--not only for a clear shot but as a safety factor. Alligators are ambush hunters, and I think it would be reasonably safe to swim over one if you could see it (and it could see you) clearly.
Sharon and I were recently in a bayou called Rollover Canal near the coast, and we saw bottlenosed dolphin and alligators in the same spot! I plan to get back down there soon. I have no experience with pole-cams, but if you give me some advice I'll experiment to see how feasible it is. -Clay

[Jonathan Bird]

Clay,
The coolest still camera pole cam I ever saw belonged to Bill Curtsinger and he had it built by the people at Nat Geo I believe. It was a Nexus housing for an N90 or something, but they had put a tiny lipstick video camera on an appendage on the back of the housing, looking through the viewfinder. This image was displayed on a small LCD screen in a pelican case which housed the controls. He had controls for shutter release and a few other things. The only problem was that it took two people to operate (one guy to hold the camera on the pole and compose while watching the screen, and another person to fire the camera. He got some great pictures with it! He had it with him on a trip he went on with me and some other pro photographers to South Australia shooting white sharks in '98. He also got some amazing pictures from Bikini of the gray reef sharks in the pass a couple years before that.

I would think we could rig something up with an SLR housing on a pole and some kind of low-tech string-pulling shutter release. I got some neat "pole cam" shots just hanging my housing off the back of Scottie's boat to shoot sharks feeding at the stern. Same technique...but no pole. You can't see what the hell you are shooting, but with digital you just keep changing the angle a little and keep shooting. Throw out the bad shots and you are bound to have some keepers.

http://www.jonathanbird.net/jpegs11/web_uwp2157.jpg

What I would love to do with the alligators, besides some nice topside pics, would be split shots like the one above. Do you think they would hold still while we put cameras half in the water in their faces?

Jonathan

[Clay Coleman]

I have no idea what any alligator would do if confronted with a pole-cam. I suspect most would bolt, a few might bite, and a few might tolerate. Of course, the water around here would not resemble your shark pic. Here's what we're up against--a product of 200 million years of evolution:
http://claycoleman.tripod.com/d43bdd50.jpg
Hearing is one of the most acute senses (the ear opening is right behind the eye). Eyesight is also keen and they have about 25 degrees of binocular vision. But the real kickers are the little dots visible on the upper lip and lower jaw. Those are pressure sensors, and they're extremely sensitive. I would guess that even if an animal could be closely approached (many can be), some sort of reaction would occur as soon as the camera touched the water. Then, of course, there are those jaws. Bite pressure of a 12.5 footer was measured at over 2,000 pounds in a 2003 study funded by the University of Florida, Florida State, and the Nat Geo Society. That's about 6.5 times more bite force than most large sharks can produce. Also, alligators are notorious for biting and simply not letting go. I'm not sure if a pole-cam could be recovered in the event of a serious bite from a big one.

But enough of this cold, hard fact stuff! I'm willing to try if you are. Unfortunately, the 'gators are in hibernation until around April, so I can't go out with a push-pole and experiment with them. We'll definitely talk more about this. -Clay

[Bodie]

Don't the new Canon's (and maybe your fancy shmancy new D300's) have software allowing full wireless manipulation (save for zoom of course) wirelessly via 802.11 and a laptop??? Has anyone heard about this or am I dreaming again?

Pretty sure they require a little fob or transmitter that won't fit in my subal, but it'd probably work in an Ike.

[Jonathan Bird]

I can imagine sitting out in a boat with my laptop trying to take pictures!

They do have a remote for the D300 but I have never looked into it. I'll have to check that out. I thought it was wired.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Well, I'll be damned....

They have a wireless remote (http://www.adorama.com/NKML3U.html). Not sure if the IR will work through the housing but I can't see why not.

Jonathan