2017 Wildlife Photo Contest

Species: African Elephant | Location: Murchison Falls Natural Park, Uganda

Sometimes a wildlife image looks more like "art."

This elephant came closer and closer to our car and fortunately I wasn't driving. I was zooming in close and looking for the right composition. I love the depth I find in this creatures eye. Our driver and friend Ezra stayed calm because, he said, the elephant appeared calm. I was very lucky to see this animal .

I think this image is a loose example of the rule of thirds. On the left vertical is the Musth gland and it's secretions. Wikipedia says this is seen in bull elephants when they are wanting to reproduce and correlates with high testosterone. They say,"Scientific investigation of musth is problematic because even the most placid elephants become highly violent toward humans and other elephants during musth." Fortunately Ezra didn't know that and just looked an the elephants behavior.

About The Photographer

I have been passionate about photography since childhood. I had a darkroom in my mom's canning cellar at age 13. In my professional life as an AIDS doctor I did a lot of teaching other doctors and I used my images in my powerpoints ( instead of blue slides with tables and graphs) to be able to share the personal part of the story. In this work I am able to travel to many places in the developing world, many with amazing natural beauty and wildlife. I have had many wonderful photographic moments in the village, the hospital and the game parks. I teach photography in Boulder, Colorado where I live, at the local camera store, as well as at a beautiful retreat center in British Colombia ( hollyhock.ca) and lead a photographic expedition to the Galapagos each year. I wrote a book for my students, "From Point ant Shoot to Brilliant Photography"--full of my photographs. What fun!