Image Description
We live in the far southern, high desert region of Arizona. Javelinas are common and seem to travel at night. They feed on most anything they can find. In this case the ground litter from my bird feeders is the attraction. This night I heard them milling about so I stepped outside with my camera and flash. I was able to get fairly close and grabbed this shot. No time for any follow-up shots as the flash startled them and they took off.
Type of Critique Requested
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Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
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Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
My only purpose for taking thins shot was to see if I could get an interesting image of these characters in near total darkness. Not so much an artistic attempt but rather an interesting documentation.
Technical Details
Lumix S5 camera with 20-60mm @60mm
1/100th, f7.1, iso 100 with on camera flash
Hi Bill. Thanks for posting in Human and Fauna. This is an interesting documentary shot and the flash makes the javelinas look pretty fierce. Since you’re trying for a documentary image, you might bring up the brightness on the feeder/bird bath on the far left. You might also see how you like it with most of the rear-facing javelina on the left cropped off. Composing flash shots at night, especially on the fly has to be pretty difficult and I like how you did it. If you get another chance (and I suspect you will) you might think about including the full feeder in the frame to help tell the story of why they’re there. If you want to make them look really fierce, getting down lower (even lower than their faces) might be very effective (just don’t make yourself look like food).
Thanks for your input, all valid suggestions. But these guys can be quite aggressive at times and caution is key. Having only a 60mm focal length at that moment I already had to get closer than I should’ve. To get as close as I did I had to be very stealth. As I mentioned, their eyesight is poor. But once the flash fired the party was over.
I’m thinking of setting up a camera on a tripod and use a remote to capture some more candid shots. If I get anything decent I’ll post.
Thanks again for the comments. Much appreciated.
What an opportunity! Hope you have other chances. Maybe set up 2 flashes if you have them, one at lower power to give more shadow definition.
We’ve had wild pigs making a mess lately – so far not close to the house. Apparently a population explosion that may not be controllable.
Mean looking dudes! I wonder if there would be more impact if the one on the right was cropped out, since we don’t see the face.
