Brandon Kemp – The Night Visitor: My First Camera Trap Capture

There’s a certain kind of magic in knowing that wild creatures move through our world when we aren’t watching. For years, I had been fascinated by the idea of camera trapping and setting up a hidden eye in the night and letting nature reveal itself in its own time. Finally, one evening, I decided to give it a go.

I set up my kit with a Canon 1DX Mark II and a 17-40mm lens, paired with an infrared sensor and a flash in a friend’s garden. It wasn’t just any random spot. This garden had a secret. Almost every night, a fox would slip silently along a stone staircase, using it as a pathway toward a fountain where it came to drink. Its route was so precise, so routine, that I felt almost certain I’d be able to capture it.

Still, certainty doesn’t remove the anticipation. Camera trapping requires patience. You set everything up, align your angles, dial in your settings, and then you wait. The camera becomes your stand-in presence, ready to witness what you cannot.

And then, it happened.

The sensor triggered. The flash burst. And in that instant, my camera recorded what my own eyes could not: a red fox, lit by the lantern glow and frozen mid-step, climbing the stone stairs with quiet determination. The image was exactly what I had hoped for. 

What struck me most wasn’t just the photograph itself, but the story behind it. This was the fox’s world, not mine. I was just an observer, lucky enough to glimpse a fragment of its hidden routine. For the fox, these stairs were simply a route to water. For me, they became the stage of my very first camera trap success.

I had wanted this moment for a long time, and when it finally came, it felt like an initiation into a new way of seeing. Camera trapping isn’t just about photography it’s about connection. It’s about letting the wild carry on as it always does, while we find creative ways to respectfully step into its story.

This one image is only the beginning, but it carries with it the thrill of discovery and the promise of countless more unseen encounters waiting to be revealed.

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