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Not all things that go on in the deep backyard of Jim and Wanda Richmond’s house in Blacklick can be reckoned with by the uninformed or the faint of heart.

Or so the electronic record would suggest.

Every picture tells a story, the saying goes, although the story is not the same for every viewer. Imperfectly understood, perhaps, are the meanings of images such as those Jim Richmond’s trail cam collects day and night under a dome of trees and around a spread of apples, dried corn and other offerings.

“The winter of 2010-2011, I decided to keep track of how much (corn) I purchased. December through February came to 88 50-pound bags. I don’t keep track anymore,” Richmond said. “Sometimes I leave food scraps, like bones and rinds, and that sort of thing. They get picked pretty clean.”

Richmond has been sharing images that show the return on his investment, and the surprises they contain.

Since April, caught on camera are raccoons, wild turkeys, one or more red foxes and deer of various sizes, ages and genders.

The daytime photos are dominated by a compact flock of wild turkeys apparently attracted to the spread. The turkeys make up an almost regular crowd.

“There are three big ones and two small ones,” Richmond said.

The birds look good and seem satisfied, as do the deer that drop in day or night and prove photogenic in any light. Fed in part by Richmond-delivered victuals, the smaller deer grow bigger as the months unfold and the bucks grow antlers.

The racks are not state-record size, but what does size matter at one small spot in the woods that calls in creatures most people don’t realize are there?

A solitary red fox, not necessarily the same one, shows up in several nighttime frames across weeks. In one, the camera catches a fox checking out a smallish raccoon, and vice versa.

In short, the shots reveal a thriving menagerie in a backyard oasis not so different from the cartoonish coexistence often depicted in family entertainment. Yet, the collection contains a scene that completes a grimmer story about the nature of life.

The actors are a coyote and a young raccoon. Both have gone to feed, one on corn, the other on something else. It is a short take.

The raccoon, Richmond said, apparently “got separated from the pack.”

In the first shot of three, taken at 5:48 a.m. on June28, the solitary raccoon hangs just outside the thick spread of seed. In the next shot, a coyote snaps at the hapless critter. In the finale, the coyote carries away the limp animal, its survival no longer a question.

“They prey on the weakest,” Richmond said.