How well do you hide your trail camera?

I hid this camera in the fork of some vinemaple limbs that hung head high over this creek bed and covered it with moss. A good deer trail crosses the creek, did get some nice buck and coyote photos there, but this series of pictures show a hiker looking for rocks in the stream bed. He almost ran his head into the camera and am sure he had to lower his head going under the limbs where the camera was hid.

Bobcat posing for the camera

Sometimes I set my camera on a short delay for the first photo, I can do this in several ways depending on the type of camera. On the Olympus 380 when the camera is on all the time you can set a 5 second delay for the first picture, but after that the delay is off. Some boards have a delay as with the XLP and some cameras are slower than others or you can just be lucky.

This young bobcat certainly gave me a nice pose looking over its shoulder in a relaxed sitting position. Had the camera set very close to a location where I found an animal buried that had been killed by a bobcat. I believe an older cat would have been a little more cautious with the camera so close, although it was hid quite well with moss.

This is another photo of the cat looking above the camera. Out all the pictures of this bobcat, none showed it looking at the camera and the flash went off on every photo.

Otter - difficult to photograph

Trying to get a good photo of an otter is a challenge in every way, first is finding the otter and the second is getting it to stand still long enough to get the picture. They are always on the move either running or bounding along looking for food or playing, plus they are very smart and fast enough to out run the cameras triggering speed.

These photos would be better if I had been able to set the camera back another foot for a larger field of view, but the pond was behind me and this camera was on a log in 8 feet of water.

Coyote

This camera was set on the edge of a opening and slightly uphill from a good predator trail. Distance was about three feet from the trail, but this coyote walked by closer than the trail. The Sony P41 takes very good pictures in focus for my kind of work, and by hiding the camera low the animals are more natural as they walk past. Also, most predators use the same trails, which are easy to see once you know what to look for. Almost like the trail your dogs leave around the house, but not as well worn.

Cameras set low and close

Have some health issues that have prevented me from getting my cameras back out, so will use some older photos for a while, plus add tips on how I use my cameras.

I enjoy getting photos of birds and predators, but my first pictures were too far from the animal. After years of setting out the cameras and learning their habits, I worked my cameras closer. In this photo of a Red Tail hawk, I placed a small log for the bird to land on and just behind the camera is a small creek. Lots of mice and other small animals in this area to attract birds. Sometimes it takes several weeks or a month to get any photos but worth the time.