Recently, I was in the beautiful Bay Area to shoot the fab Burger Boogaloo, but also made the trip into a mini family vacay, and we ended up in Golden Gate Park at the impressive California Academy of Sciences. Now, any normal parent would be talking about all the cool exhibits with her teenagers and learning all about science stuff. But instead, I (relatively quietly) hooted and snorted and grinned like a mule eatin' garlic when I came across the gorgeous horror of native dead preserved animals. While others were soberly reading about the exhibits and doing nifty science projects on pretty blond wood tables, I was taking close-ups of birds, reptiles, and others, frozen in time with expressions they probably never exhibited in the wild, forever aghast or judgy or angry, or stunned, or pensive, or just plain loopy. This is how I cope; I used to cry buckets over taxidermy when I was little! The pathos was just too much.
But now, hey, I see it as they live on, people can appreciate them or see things that went extinct, and support conservation in a time of destruction of our lovely world. Also, these make great social media avatars, so, you're welcome. Click to enlarge and please to enjoy.
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman