Alex Badyaev's Image

Each year, on a few warm late-summer evenings, satin moths flutter at the windows of Alex's cabin deep in the Montana wilderness.

Introduced to North America with timber shipments from Europe in the 1920s, they emerge over just a few days in August and are attracted by lights. In turn, they are irresistible lures for the neighbourhood long-legged myotis bats, otherwise restricted to feeding mostly on mosquitoes and caddisflies. 'It took a couple of summers before I figured out how to photograph the scene without overpowering the warm glow from the window lamp or disturbing predators and prey,' says Alex. 'By the time I'd mastered the technical side, my 13-month-old son Victor's love of bat-watching completed the tableau. Here he's standing on his bed, spellbound by the scene unfolding before him.'