In an old stone barn on an organic farm in Devon, England, live lesser horseshoe bats, noctule bats, whiskered bats, and more. Each night during the summer, they emerge from their maternal roost to hunt for moths, flies, and other insects. For nearly two months last summer, they had an audience.

A few nights a week, conservation photographer Neil Aldridge posted himself in the grassy courtyard nearby. One of his cameras pointed into the barn door and other pointed up into the night sky. Prepared to stay up all night, he configured his cameras to snap photos the instant a bat triggered a motion sensor.

If he was lucky, when he reviewed the photos later, Aldridge would find that he