Wonders of the Woodpile

The most common resident of the woodpile has to be the bark beetles. They lay their eggs and then the larvae chew into the soft inner bark leaving intricate patterns into the wood. Here is one from yesterday morning when I was gathering some wood from the stack. God's love and blessings to all, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a 100 mm macro lens. The camera settings used were, AV mode, ISO 800, F13.0 at 1/80th of a sec. The beetle was placed on a white sweep with four LED light panels. Two lights on the beetle and two on the background. #teamcanon

Another Resident of the Woodpile

While rearranging the wood pile I also ran across one of our native snails. Here is a Shoulderband Snail. I love the ruddy red color of their bodies. It contrasts quite well with the dark shells that they have. This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a 100mm lens on a Manfrotto tripod. #teamcanon Have a blessed week, chris

Local Lizard

Nothing can get your adrenaline pumping like picking up a piece of firewood to find a nine inch long lizard underneath it. Featured here is one of the bigger Northern Alligator Lizards that makes its home in our woodpile. It was held temporarily captive today while I photographed it and then set it free in a section of woodpile that we probably won't be getting to for quite awhile. I hope that you are having an enjoyable weekend. God bless, chris These images were created with a Canon 7D MkII anda 100 mm macro lens on a Manfrotto 190 XPROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 Heavy duty ballhead. Lighting was provided by window light and a gold reflector. #teamcanon

Good Guys or Bad Guys?

One of the little critters I inevitably find in our wood piles are Bark Beetles. Bark Beetles provide an important role in our forests. They attack diseased and dying trees and eat the phloem and cambium layers of the tree. They also bore through the bark into these same layers to lay their eggs and allow their larvae to feed, grow up and hatch out. This allows fungus into the tree and it weakens it and many times the tree will start to die. Weakened trees give woodpeckers a a smorgasborg of places to eat larvae. With the softer wood they can bore out nest cavities for themselves and other birds. Bears and other creatures can benefit from eating the larvae as well. As you can see bark beetles provide a great benefit to the forest as food and by helping to break down the wood for other creatures. Eventually the trees will rot and turn into forest duff for other plants to grown and nurture in. There can be too much of a good thing however. Drought ridden and improperly managed forests can lead to a population explosion of Bark Beetles leading them to attack healthy trees as well as the weakened ones. There are huge swaths of trees being decimated by Bark Beetles in parts of North America. I'm unsure of the answer to that one but it is a huge problem in some of our forests. On that note I hope that you are having a beautiful day. God bless, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens. Camera was set to Manual mode, ISO 200, Shutter speed of 1/200th of a sec. F stops varied. Light source used were two Alien Bee 1600 studio flashes.

Winter Stash

Woodpiles are the source of a lot of my photographic efforts. It's not that I particularly like woodpiles it's just that's where I seem to find a lot of of my subject matter. I find everything from really interesting pieces of wood for perches to salamanders and scorpions. Last week I was putting in some wood for my Mom and when I lifted up a piece of firewood acorns started pouring to the ground. There was a stash of four or five gallons of acorns piled in between the logs. I really felt sorry for the poor creature that put them all there. It's hard to imagine all of the effort and countless hours it took to gather so many acorns into one place. If you look closely at the image you can see where they were gnawing on one of the acorns for a winter's meal. May your day be blessed, chris

Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D,100mm Macro Lens. Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a 3055 Ballhead. , Camera Settings- AV Mode,ISO 400,F11.0, Shutter speed 1/4 th of a sec.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Earlier over the weekend I finished stacking the last of the woodpile for the upcoming winter. As usual there were some critters at the bottom of the pile. There were two lizards that I captured and immediately set free. One Western Fence Lizard and one Northern Alligator Lizard. The remaining creature I saved until this evening to photograph. A five inch long North American Millipede. Millipedes are pretty amazing. They are detritivores meaning that the eat the detris or rotting vegetation on the forest floor. Being nocturnal they prefer to stay out of the light and in dark places under logs or leaves. For protection from predators they will roll up into a spiral shape. If that doesn't work they will release a foul and burning chemical that will convince many small creatures not to eat it. Luckily tonight I handled this millepede rather gently and I didn't end up with smelly hands before I let it go back into the forest. God's love and protection to all, chris