I have an interesting situation and I want to try to get a shot. I keep a suet feeder on a tree near the bathroom window. The feeder brings in woodpeckers, catbirds and several other species that I shoot pictures of. The suet feeder has recently drawn the attention of a raccoon. It shows up every night and finishes off whatever suet the birds didn't eat during the day.
The tree is about 12 feet from the house (guestimating) and I want to get a picture of the little bandit raiding the feeder. I fully expect him to be aware of me sitting there and he'll be on his guard. I figure I'll get one shot before he hauls ringtail for the woods. My thinking: I'll set up with a fairly wide angle lens (50mm or 100mm) to include the context of the tree and the feeder. I have to prefocus the lens at the correct distance because I won't be able to see well enough to focus in the dark. I sure don't want to try any focus assist. I think it will scare him off. If I sit quietly enough with shutter cable in hand and wait for the right moment I might get a shot. My question is whether I should set the flash on manual exposure and calculate the aperture using the GN or whether I should use TTL flash metering. I'm a little uneasy with the possibility that the camera will overexpose the raccoon and the tree. I could use P-TTL with the AF-360 but I figure the higher power AF-500 might give me a better chance. I'll be shooting slide film with my MZ-S so exposure is critical. Does anyone have any thoughts? Other ideas? thanks Tom Reese
