When trail cams go wrong... mysterious man photobombs camera trap stakeout

Above: The Instagram post that shows the unexpected photobomber

Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Jeff Wirth has got some of his best footage using trail cameras - but as is often the case with these camera traps, you don't always get pictures of what you are looking for. But earlier this month, when he retrieved the images from one of his remote cameras he got a bit of a surprise. Carefully set up on a log, he had hoped to get pictures of a bobcat that he had photographed crossing this way before. But instead it got images of man in an orange high-vis jacket parading in front of the camera!

The man, who had obviously spotted the trail camera gave a number of different poses, for Jeff to discover later. Happily, for Jeff, he left the camera undisturbed - providing him with this unusual photographic Easter egg! 

In an unexpected turn of events, the secret poser revealed his true identity to Jeff and his followers when he saw the resulting picture on Instagram.

You can see some of Jeff's successful trail cam wildlife pictures on his website – which go to prove that patience and a few disappointments can give you some stunning images of nature.

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Chris George

Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography. 

His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.

He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.

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