« Charge & Go | Home | Quacking Duck Timer »
October 19, 2011
Diving olive ridley sea turtle
From the Wall Street Journal: "We're used to animals fleeing our presence: an elk dashing away in a far field, rabbits scurrying from our headlights at dusk. The wildlife that live on the edge of civilization are rightly wary of our ways. And as tourism increasingly tames even our wildest places, it's one more reason to be drawn to the deep. To look below the surface of the sea is to be surrounded by life unconscious of our intrusion, to still find awe in nature's wealth and variety: Schools of blue tang blithely swimming past, tarpon gathered around a rocky point, barracuda drawn to the violent motions of human swimming. Nothing, though, is so amazing as the languid elegance of the sea turtle. Mocked in cartoons and poetry as slow and steady, in the water he is as fast or smooth as he wishes. This diving olive ridley sea turtle (above), from Mark Laita's collection of underwater images, 'Sea,' is a tolerant lord unworried by intrusion on his demesne. Mr. Laita has spent 30 years trying to capture the way light and life play in the oceans. Because the reds of the color spectrum are diminished in water — giving 'everything we see a blue-green cast' — he uses custom-built fish tanks and sharp strobe light to restore the balance and show fish in sharp relief and bright true color. It is artifice in service of actuality, in the great still-life tradition of Chardin, Manet and Morandi. Like such painterly giants, Mr. Laita is interested in the play of form in repetition, working to catch the surface reflection and making the water itself a character in his images. The undulations of a wolf eel are mirrored in a wave, and a white-spotted boxfish is emphasized by painterly slashes of yellow. Here is craft honed to so high a level it becomes art. 'Sea' is simply a miracle of depiction."
October 19, 2011 at 04:01 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c5dea53ef01539268824b970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Diving olive ridley sea turtle:
Comments
If looks could kill... brother that is one pissed Chelonioidea.
Posted by: 6.02*10^23 | Oct 26, 2011 1:01:12 PM
Really nice shot! I always adore sea turtles.
-admin
Posted by: pistol shrimp | Oct 26, 2011 4:28:46 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.