Monday, August 31, 2009

nightlife

Momma doesn't like me hanging around with the riff raff who roam the streets at night. But I like these guys. The skunks are nice animals. They don't go 'round stinking on people unless they're provoked. And the bats have been eating the mosquitoes. The only thing on God's green earth that I hate more than mosquitoes is dandelions, so the enemy of my enemy has become my friend.

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As you may have surmised, these were taken with something more than just the pop-up flash on my point & shoot. I used an infrared slave device to trigger a stronger flash. The bats were really hard to catch, since their flight patters are so quick and irregular.

13 comments:

Louise said...

The bat shots are impressive.I never even dreamed of trying to get a picture of one. I love skunks, but you must not have a dog or it was locked in the house. Dogs just can't figure out to leave them alone! (In my days of washing dogs in tomato juice, I never blamed the skunk, however.)

Anonymous said...

i wonder what the bats were thinkin when they got flashed.

good shots!

imac said...

Great work, and what captures, well worth the work and effort Craver.

EG CameraGirl said...

I like bats way more than skunks. ;-) But you got great shots of both.

You don't like dandelions?

Shammickite said...

Great shots.
OlderSon hurt his heel playing baseball last week, and was limping everywhere. A couple of evenings later, he went out to his car to get something and cornered a skunk in the driveway in the dark. He turned and ran.... and his heel hasn't pained him since!
Moral on the story.... I dunno, you decide.

Pastor Dave said...

awesome bat pics!!..batman would be proud of you! Bats can actually eat up to 3,000 mosquitos a minute!!

Every Square Inch said...

You're the only person I know to have described skunks as "nice" - that's seeing God's grace in creation for sure!

Maggie May said...

You have some really different kinds of wild life lurking around your home! We would have to go to the zoo to see those!
Don't provoke a skunk!

Craver Vii said...

ogs never learn; do they Louise? This wasn't my yard though. This was outside of church. My family helps there with a food pantry, and we see three skunks outside every week, when we close up.

:-) My guess nAncY, is that they where thinking, "Whoa... did anybody else hear that?

Imac, it was nice not to have any pressure of time or positioning. Nobody else was around (except my kids), and I just did my thing.

Dandelions are the archnemesis of my lawn, EG. They come uninvited and spread their broad leaves, killing my grass, and leaving brown spots. The root system makes it tricky to remove them (without using herbicide). I frequently go on a rant about dandelions. If you stick around, you're likely to hear it again, and again...

Carletta said...

Very impressive sir!
I love that you can see the structure of the bat's body in the first one.

Craver Vii said...

So glad my little friends helped him recover, Shammy. Yet another reason for me to like them.

That many, Dave? Wow, I didn't know that! I don't want to take any chances with rabies, but I appreciate being able to step outside at night without being overwhelmed by those pesky little bugs.

Sure ESI. I'm no Saint Francis, but if you ever get a chance to observe a momma skunk with her little ones. So long as you don't intimidate them, they're docile and even cute.

I've never been sprayed yet, Maggie May. It's neat to see how much one can discover with the combination of a lens and enthusiasm.

Thanks Carletta. I had a streetlight above, and a flash on the camera. I picked a spot where I hoped they would pass through, set the camera to manual, pressed the shutter half-way and waited. My daughter and I were excited to see that we captured any images at all that night.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Craver: Those bat shots are so special. I would not flash a skunk out of fear.

mommanator said...

great shots my riend. let me know when you get too near the smelly friend o yours! Have ya ever been skunk hunting? I did when I lived in Colorado, great fun!