It’s a photo studio in the wild. After struggling to track and photograph wildlife that are notoriously skittish and nocturnal, David switched tactics and let them come to him—or at least to his cameras. Triggered as an animal passes by and lit with off-axis lighting, camera traps reveal an intimate, one-of-a-kind perspective that’s nearly impossible to capture any other way.

Built from a mix of off-the-shelf and custom components—housings, mounts, and more—these setups are left in the field for weeks or months at a time. Through plenty of trial and error (countless selfies, thousands of false triggers, bears making unhelpful “adjustments,” wildfires, and one set flooded beyond repair), David has captured many of the animals that call Northern California home. And the Christmas-morning rush of checking the traps to see what tripped the shutter never gets old.