Animals Captivity – The Endurance Myth

Elephants In Captivity

Calm and nice enough to pose

I was boating at the Lake Skinner in Temecula and found this Brown Pelican, as I slowed down and tried to get closer I thought I will scare it but it stayed still! and it keeps turning as I turn around LOL, it was a perfect pose for some head shots. It was challenging trying to keep steering the boat in slow speed and at the same time take shots without shaking the camera especially my lens does not have VR but I took some nice shots and they turned out good too specially after cropping them to improve the composition. Finally I converted them to BW to keep the color distractions away.

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Lake Skinner – Murrieta

I moved recently to a new city called Murrieta in Riverside county, California where a beautiful lake is located few miles away, the lake is called Lake Skinner, it has 1400 acres of surface water. I went with my family to explore the area, I was not planning for a serious photography that day but the cloudy weather and fall colors were perfect to try some shots with my new DSLR (Nikon D600). The images turned out great. No HDR, all shots in RAW and processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Definitely going back for a more serious planned photo shooting for this photogenic lake. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Marina Store Boat Rental – Lake Skinner

Colorfull Walk – Lake Skinner

Wood Fense – Lake Skinner

Wood Fence – Lake Skinner

Annee Portrait – Lake Skinner

Butterfly in Mono

Butterflies are usually photographed in colors but I thought to do something different by rendering them in black and white. I liked how mono tones bring texture and definition to butterflies that sometimes get distracted by the nicely composed colors. This is a forgotten picture I found in my archive while I was looking for some square pictures for printing; and I stopped by this picture then the thought of turning it to black and white came naturally when I looked at the butterfly wings texture and how they flows naturally with the composition. Hope you like it!

Butterfly in Black and White

The Elephant

I was at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar and found this elephant in a barn used for kids to ride on. He looks tired,sad and hopeless;  lead by his master using a stick although he was kind with the huge elephant but the scene was a mix of a brutal life and happy experiences by kids having fun riding the elephant.  looking at this enslaved animal taken from his open wild life into a life where he can only move, eat and rest by the commands of his masters bring the brutal human control on animals. I’m against enslaving animals to serve the human in all its forms. I took my share of this selfish enslaving world and took two portraits shot then converted to monochrome to emphasize on the elephant skin texture. Hope you like it.

The Elephant #1 – Monochrome

The Elephant #2 – Monochrome

Morro Rock – Morro Bay, California

California state route 1 along the pacific coast is the one of the most beautiful scenic drive in united states. If you are into seascape, landscape, wildlife , history photography then it worth every gas gallon you will spend :). I drove the route for two times and did not cover even 60% of the scenes and landmark that I like to photo shoot.

one of the known nature landmark on the route is the Morro Rock located offshore the Morro Bay city, this a real huge massive volcanic rock that basically looks like an island by its own. I did not have the time to stay till sunset, so I just take a casual picture in mid day to show the massive size so I was not pay attention to the quality of light and the result. If you pay close attention, there is a boat on the lower right of the picture that looks tiny compared to the size of the rock. Click on the image for actual size

Morro Rock - Morro Bay, California

I also spotted this beautiful white bird (I think it is called Great Egret), and I liked its pose and reflection on the water. Click on the image for actual size

Great Egret Bird - Morro Rock, Morro Bay, California