AngieChick, that is an awesome bator!
I will have to get pictures of mine at some point. I had taken a few before I made some modifications, but it's basically a copy of
speckledhen's fridge-a-bator .
Jody, thank you! Most of them wouldn't photograph well, but that one was so visible when I candled that I just had to try and get a decent image of it.
Thank you Solsken Farm!
For those curious about what I am using to candle...
I have a high powered LED flashlight called an Element K2. I purchased mine in a twin pack at Sam's club for around $25, I think. It's been a while. Anyway, I cut out a soft foam ring and attached it to the rim of the flash light so that the eggs could be cushioned and the light would not leak out around the bottom of the egg. Then I set my camera up on a tripod and flip it to the manual setting. I have it take a 15 second exposure with a 2 second delay, so I can get my hands off of the camera before it starts to take the picture. Then I play around with the exposure, brightness and contrast in Photoshop to enhance what we can see.
That being said... I will be getting a new camera here very shortly that will allow me to take even better images. If you thought these were good, get ready.
Next time I hatch I should be able to take some incredible photographs. -- Then I will work on a progress shoot for development, katrinag.
KristaChickenWhisperer, as far as other advice... just read through the Learning Center here on BYC and also read through some older posts about hatching people have written. There's a mountain of gold here, you just have to dig to find the nuggets you need.
