No animal is more majestic than the elephant. His dried, battle scarred, and wrinkled skin evokes a sense of knowledge and wisdom. And certainly, what they know and what they remember can raise a sense of shame and perhaps guilt in us. In taking Figure 1 at the San Diego Zoo, I focused on its eyelashes, which could certainly be the envy of so many would be models. Their primary function is to protect the eyes from dust and insects, but here they represent one more connection with humans.

“The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?”

David Attenborough

Canon T2i with EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens at 275mm, 1/800 th sec at f/7.1, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE mode.