2 days old

At just 2 days old, this Asian elephant calf weighs in at 140 kg. Born at

Melbourne zoo he will help provide some surety for the survival of the species

who's current status is 'endangered' due to poaching and loss of habitat.

And he will spend the rest of his days behind bars. Animals should be seen in the wild. ie Marina Cano's images. Seeing them in the wild and photographed in the wild gives us a better reason to look after these majestic creatures, not photographing them cages , sad and depressed.

Sorry ART but i feel very strongly about animals caged in zoo's and i will do my part to voice my oposition to this.

This is no disrepect to the quality of your work, it is oposition to the subject matter in ther context. to me it is a form of exploitation.

really very good composition ,the positions of the mother and baby are very good also...I like it a lot...regards.my friend.

Wonderful image Art.  Excellent, well done.

Art, you continue to make wonderful tributes to these elephants through your images, such a contribution and raising of awareness. The beauty and care you take with each composition is evident once more in this masterful addition to your Portfolio.

  @ Richard

"And he will spend the rest of his days behind bars"

Actually, no he wont be Richard. He'll be spending them in an open range-type environment comprising of swimming pools, sand mounts and trees along with the rest of the herd.

"Animals should be seen in the wild. ie Marina Cano's images."

Perhaps you should revisit her WHOLE body of work before making such moral comparisons, rather than the selective one you just made.

"Seeing them in the wild and photographed in the wild gives us a better reason to look after these majestic creatures, not photographing them cages , sad and depressed"

If you see a sad, depressed and caged animal in this image Richard I'd suggest your visual interpretation and general life outlook speaks more about you than it does about the image.

 "Sorry ART but i feel very strongly about animals caged in zoo's and i will do my part to voice my oposition to this"

On this point, I agree with you Richard as I too often voice my objection to caged animals, be they in zoos, in homes, in the circus and so on. When you say "your part" I wonder if this extends to "your part" (through the food products you buy) in preventing deforestation of natural habitats resulting in species extinction (a point I will get to shortly)

 Although I recognise this is a photography site where work is critiqued on the basis of technique and composition, I'd like to clarify a few things for you Richard.

Firstly, I respect and acknowledge the intent with which you make your comments but find the platform from which they are made to be one on ignorance, uneducated, miss-information or uninformed assessments and assumptions about this image, about Melbourne zoo and about the work they do.

.

Secondly, you proceed to make moral comparisons/judgments between my work and that of another photographer (who I consider to be both talented and inspiring) and you extend your ignorance to a selective appreciation of their work to help make that moral judgment (something I find very offensive). What you clearly don't, or choose not to understanding, is that many of her fantastic images have been photographed in the Cantabria wildlife park which showcases animals in a semi-natural captive environment much like Melbourne zoo does. Yet you choose to apply the term "exploitation" to one and not the other. Again, selectively interpreting what you see to prove your point.

Thirdly, you then choose to ignore my initial comments (on this image) about the threat these animals face in the wild and the work Melbourne zoo does, which, if you hadn't, perhaps you'd gain some appreciation for the image and the zoo's work (by visiting their web site) towards conservation awareness and preservation.

Fourthly, if you're going to go down the road of "exploitation", I'd suggest you get off your moral high horse, go into your kitchen and look at the food products in your fridge and pantry. Read the labels on the back and see that if those items contain palm oil, which I suspect about 50% do (often under the generic guise of vegetable oil due to laxed labelling laws), , then consider yourself  part of the problem and not the solution in advocating the rights of animals. Palm oil remains the single most important and direct threat to the natural habitat  of many species and sub-species of animals, such as the young calf in this photo and the reason why a captive breeding program is necessary for their survival The part you lay claim to playing by voicing your distain for this image is well overshadowed by the greater part you probably play in contributing to habitat exploitation through the food products you choose to buy.

fantastic, 7!

Once again very nice work. It goes to my favorites.

Ben

thank you all very much

Reading your detailed  answer to Richard ,was not only interesting, but also a kind of educating.

I know ( because I like animals and am  interested to read, see, and hear about them) how   very disasterous for them is the elimination of their habitat in many places on earth.

We have here a safary which Richard will probably call caged animals, but it  is a huge peace of land, yes, they can not go out, but they have all the food, big space and professional/ medical treatment they need. So caged is relative.

I love that scene of mother and elephant baby, just born a short time before. The timing,The mother's protected back, the soft light especially on the baby , and the brown color palette, with the orange point of his eye... ;-))  A good addition to your series of them.

Thank you Pnina. I appreciate your visit and the time taken to comments :)

Hello ArtX.

Great shot. Love the detailes in their skin and nice tones. Great work. 

Kind regards to down under.

Bela Dick

PS: :) You do not find palm oil or any vegetable oil in my house. Thats the least I could do. In Norway  they will also stop the use of the label "vegetable oil". They must label what kind of oil it is. :). Use of Palm Oil has fallen sharply the last few year here.