As I’m traveling and don’t have access to my file of wildlife photos, here’s a lovely one that was posted by biologist/naturalist/photographer Piotr Naskrecki on his Facebook page, and which I’ve been given permission to reproduce here.
As always with Piotr, it’s a stunning photo, and his caption is below (nb: I don’t think Piotr qualifies as a “reader”, because as director of the E.O. Wilson Lab, he’s usually doing biology in the wilds of Mozambique; but I had to use the regular title).
An early morning squabble – young Saddle-billed Storks [Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis] fighting over a small tilapia that one of them caught in a drying pool on the Gorongosa floodplain.
Beautiful photo.
Excellent!
The motion and energy between the birds is clear
The composition is such that the birds take on human qualities, as if from an opera or ballet
Hey, I listen to opera and ballet, so what?
Phenomenal shot. Beautiful.
Piotr that’s beautiful. Makes me wonder at all the dino dance moves we’ll never know about.
Beautiful photo of dinosaurs!
My thoughts exactly!
When I first saw this post I was looking at it on my phone. Not only are the keys on the pad too damn small for my fat fingers, so is the screen for these Olde eyes and I initially thought it was a very nice painting of a couple of dinosaurs. Then I saw the “Reader’s wildlife photos” header. Thought I’d best see it on my computer….
I see I was right – it’s a gorgeous photo of squabbling dinosaurs.
Must put a real damper on the chances of a flash-mob performance of “Ode to Joy” or “Bolero” or something from the ABBA oeuvre.
wrong thread
That’s a fantastic photo. At first I thought it was one of those paintings of dinosaurs.
I’ve always loved Piotr’s photographs. They’re wonderful.
Very well balanced light. I wonder if there was any fill flash. But that’s unlikely because of the distance from the subject – which I assume is quite substantial.