Raiders of the Raised Beds

Recently some animal has been eating the few remaining leaves of chard in the raised garden beds in our backyard in Flagstaff.  Also, an ornamental cabbage got munched over the weekend.  It was time to find out who the raider was.  I borrowed a motion-detection camera and set it up in the backyard. 

The first night was a bust...no visitors.  However, the second day... success!  The first raider was the neighbor's dog at 3:26 in the afternoon.  But at 1:52 a.m. a javelina or peccary appeared.  Then a minute later, a second javelina came into view.  Looks like they had a little disagreement about the chard and one left.  The remaining javelina dug and ate for a few more minutes before disappearing into the night.

A 1964 Arizona Game & Fish Department publication shows javelina distribution to be south of the Mogollon Rim and not even to Camp Verde to the northwest.  There is a single record of javelina in Walnut Canyon in 1954.  By the 1970s, javelina were common in the Verde Valley and enjoying digging up gardens in Sedona and elsewhere.  In March of 2001, I saw a small herd along the Grand Canyon Railway a few miles south of the Grand Canyon.  And we have had sporadic sightings in Kachina Village over the last decade.  But a number of neighbors have reported the little guys this last summer and fall so maybe they are now permanent residents in Flagstaff.

By the way, don't call them pigs.  Although superficially resembling little porkers, javelina are in the Family Tayassuidae (peccaries) and pigs including hogs are in the Family Suidae.  The families are distinct from each other in their dentition and other anatomical features.  Also, pigs are originally Old World species and javelina are New World.

So be careful if you are out wandering around your garden in the dark.  No telling what else is out there.     

Mammoth Light Painting

In October during the 8th Annual Bluff Arts Festival,  sculptor Joe Pachak along with artist JR Lancaster, Raini Pachak and a host of friends and helpers constructed a life-size mammoth in the center of town to celebrate the mammoth petroglyphs along the San Juan River.  The ancient rock art is believed by some archaeologists to be between 13,000 and 11,000 years old, making it the oldest in North America.  The creators of the sculpture are planning to set the mammoth on fire using flaming atlatl darts on the Solstice.  However, there is a controversy brewing about the destruction of such an amazing piece of art.  Perhaps a Save the Mammoth movement will materialize.

Regarding the photos, they are experiments in light painting.  This is done at night with the camera on a tripod and during a long exposure using a flashlight to "paint" the subject.  Exposures are always a guess; but luckily, you can look at the LCD screen and try again and again.

The top photo was taken under a beautiful Milky Way sky at an ISO of 1600, f2.8 for 25 seconds.  Light from a D-cell type Maglite flashlight was "brushed" over the mammoth for maybe 5 seconds.

The second image was shot under a partial moon at ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds.  That bright spot in the upper right corner is the moon.  No flashlight was used only moonlight.

The third shot was under an almost full moon again at ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds, and a very short blast of flashlight on the mammoth.  Unfortunately, the result looks like a daylight picture.  Yes, that is the moon not the sun in the image.  The long exposure caught a little moon motion and, of course, Simone the dog couldn't hold still for 30 seconds.

The final image was taken at 4:00 am after the moon set.  The camera settings are again ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds.  The flashlight was used for about 5 seconds.  In Lightroom, I changed the white balance a little to remove the overly warm light of the flashlight.  Compare the color to the top image, which was not color corrected.  I also used the in-camera noise reduction setting, which as its name suggests, reduces digital noise...always an issue in long time exposures.  I increased the overall contrast a tad and added a little vibrance, one of my favorite Lightroom tools.

So there you have it.  Go out at night armed with your camera, tripod and flashlight and capture a mammoth.

Elkhorn Ranch Photo Workshop

It's time to sign up at the Elkhorn for a galloping good time and to learn how to use that new digital camera.  See you on the trail pardner!