I had always enjoyed driving down the Interstate and seeing the sun setting between the two sides of 6 lanes. I got the idea to pull over at sunset on side of the road hike up to the burm of the grass edge at a high spot that over looked the interstate. I was wearing blue jeans a black shirt and a black Nikon hat. I had a 600mm lens on a tri pod. Someone reported me as a sniper shooting at traffic. 2 police cars and 4 police appeared on the scene. I left my tripod camera and camera bag on the hill to go see what they wanted. The thru me on the ground picked me up slammed me against the police car. Despite me telling them I was a photographer. I had hand cuff's put on and my back put in a very painful position as one cop yelled at me telling me He had just came from a horrific child abuse family situation ad was in no mood for anything but the truth. I asked are you trying to tell me that your temper is about to be taken out on me if what I tell you is not perceived by you as truth. I asked for a supervisor who had control of his temper and that got me tossed in the back of the curzer. The took 15,000 dollars worth of camera equipment and tossed it on the ground. They asked if it was Ok to to look at the pictures taken and I told them it was not Ok nothing they were doing was Ok, they wanted to search my car I told them that was not Ok, they wanted to know if I had been published and so I told them to go to the state of TN.gov and there they would find my photos. One of the police recognized me and told the one who was in charge the one who had temper issues to leave me alone he would vouch for who I was, despite that he refused. A car pulled over and said that a mustang was running people off the road, passing car and slamming on breaks but he said his shift was about over that the new guys were on their way... I heard that so told him that he still had some extra paper work to fill out, what do you mean, I said your taking me in under suspicious circumstances I suspect there is a lot of paper work with that. I was shaking like crazy so he started profiling me for drug use, I told him he needed to understand that a handicap person with Parkinson and adrenal gland deficiency is why I shake. In the end I got an appoligy from the police department and the cop got a desk duty for a period of time, but that started harassment from one or more of his buddy's but it did not go so well for them either, I put it on fb and got a call from the Sheriff's office thanking me for schooling his officers on the rights of American Citizens. I also knew the mayor who had, incredibly ran into the same kind of behaviour before he was mayor by the same cop. Now mind you I have never had cause to be suspected of anything. Never been arrested for anything because I have never done anything to get arrested for but they got me for trespassing and dropped the charges. I was on the state right away in the county but walked into the city limits to see what the police wanted and in so doing crossed into an area that they claimed was trespassing even though it was part of the interstate ditch and water shed areas.

I am not looking to use it photographically but to find the wildlife subject to photography and wondering if anyone has had experience doing so.

1: I am wondering if anyone has ever used Thermal Imaging Devices with photography and if so how did you use it?
2: If hunters use them to locate prey to shoot at why can't photographers use them to locate wildlife to shoot at with their telephoto lense etc. if so has anyone used this idea before?
3: What Thermal Imaging Devices, brands etc would be best brand, style, type etc to use?
4: Is there a rental company out there that has one I can rent?

Thank you in advance for your participation in my inquiry

Darwin White

Its interesting learning to shoot the night sky. I am no expert having just recently learned to do it.

There is a rule called the rule of 500 and the rule of 600 ~ I use the rule of 500 Here's the 500 Rule: 500 Divided By the Focal Length of Your Lens = The Longest Exposure (in Seconds) Before Stars Start to “Trail” For example; let's say you're taking a shot with a 24mm lens on a full frame camera. 500 / 24 = 21 seconds, which you can round to 20 seconds, so 20 seconds is the longest amount of time you can use before you stars start to blur or trail, if your using a focal length of 24. and by the way the longer the lens the closer you are to the stars and the shorter the amount of time you will have to capture a star with out blurring, so you will have less time to capture the stars light too! Wider lens will capture more stars and brighter stars.

In addition to help keep focus sharp you will need to learn this trick

Find the brightest star in your view by using the large screen on the back of the camera if your camera has one. Once you find it in your viewer, then enlarge the photo in live view so that you can see the star better.

Before you do this set your camera to manual and be sure to turn off all anti shake features.

Now that you have the brightest star or planet like for instance Mars in site and enlarged on the live view. manually turn the focus ring starting from the infinity mark back. Watch the star turn different sizes and blurs and shapes and brightness. At some point in turning it back from infinity the star will grow smaller and brighter and you will see it sharpen till all of a sudden it starts to grow bigger and fuzzy and duller, then that happens turn your focus ring back to the point were its small, sharp ad brighter, if you keep going once again it will turn larger size and grow duller.

So once you find the sweet spot of tiny round bright light put a flat rubber band around your lens ring and camera in such away as to keep it from moving. Check to see if you bumped it while putting the rubber band on re-adjust if you did, this will help keep it from moving around when you move your tri-pod.

One other advice on this is sometimes the stars blur because the dew point has reached a point were it is fogging your lens. They sell for under 30 dollars a wrap that runs off of usb and you can use a cell phone usb portable charger... that will heat your lens up to prevent fog from cumulating.

Now your all set, set your timer to shot 5 or 6 shots in fast succession, and try it at 10 seconds to 20 seconds increasing 5 seconds each set off 5 shot or 6 shots. Then in editing you can stack the 5 shots for an even brighter star show with less noise.

Hope that is helpful

(Download)


(Download)

Be sure to go to Cades Cove GSMNP its an 11 mile loop will take you 2 to 3 hours if lots of traffic, be sure to turn down Sparks lane and Hyatt Lane. The Missing Link out of Wears Valley just opened and will have fresh and new vies that have not been seen by people of general public since the 30's the cost to build the missing link is 178 million dollars and they say it was worth every penny.

Once you end up over toward Maggie Valley be sure to head over to Cataloochee were you can take photos of huge Elk right from your car, but getting out of your car is the best experience but warning if bad weather do not go the road is icy and muddy during bad weather and difficult for cars that are low to the ground to go over.

No matter what time of the year its always possible to see a Black Bear in Cades Cove if temperatures hit above 50 degrees for several days. Look for Walnut Trees till end of Nov after that probably won't see them till March.

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence ~ Ansel Adams

My camera is a looking glass to all things beautiful ~ Darwin White