The Jurassic Park movie series, one of my favorites, has made the kind of image of Figure 1 both iconic and memetic – a pelican in flight. It invokes the sense that life on Earth is resilient and defiant – that “life finds a way!” I think that part of the appeal of La Jolla Cove is not just the very abundant wildlife but also the persistently dramatic backgrounds. Here my goal was to capture this pelican sharply, a key word here, in fight against the waves, surf, and foam. The resemblance to the pterodactyls of prehistoric times is unavoidable. You can clearly imagine, these great soaring birds, in retrospect clumsy of construction, riding the air current and thermals of another time and place.
“If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, …”
Jurassic Park
Canon T2i with EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens at 180mm, 1/4000 th sec at f/7.1, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE mode.
If I remember correctly, you, Drew and I went to see the first Jurassic Park film together. Cindy had absolutely no interest in going. We loved it. It seems like a lifetime ago.
Drew was too young for scary dinos. It was you, Terry, and I.