Lisa Salisbury Hackley

January 2025 - At the Zoo

Original

About the Image(s)

I have so many zoo images that I would love to share; however, I decided to post one that may not be as technically strong, but that has a special story (plus how cute are these guys??? SO cute, that I included an extra image.).

Meet Yaad and Tukada - the only twin elephants in North America. In October 2022, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse made history with the birth of healthy twin male Asian elephants. Elephant twins comprise less than 1% of elephant births worldwide. Of twin pregnancies, twins are often stillborn or are too weak to survive. Sometimes the mother elephant does not survive. Until this birth, there has never been a recorded case of surviving elephant twins in the United States. The few successful twin births have only taken place in their range countries in Asia and Africa and nowhere else in the world.

Happy New Year all!

8 comments posted

Connie Reinhart

You're right - baby elephants are adorable! This image looks pretty technically strong to me. We can see every little bit of fur, their eyes are sharp. the action (walking) adds great interest. They stand out quite well from the background. This is a really excellent shot. Posted: 01/08/2025 20:15:41

Lisa Salisbury Hackley

Thank you Connie. I had some other images but settled on this for the very factors you mention. I did like Carole's suggested edit for the background. Interestingly, recently took social media photos for a men's lacrosse team indoors (with an inadequate background provided) so played around with LR background masks to darken the background to eliminate distractions behind the player(s). It worked so well and really to focus the viewer on the players (subject). I never though to apply a background mask for this image to mute the background. Posted: 01/17/2025 21:39:24

Bunny Laden

Hi Lisa,
The elephants are very cute. You did a wonderful job capturing them. I especially like the spiked hair and the fact you caught them walking in step. Great job! Posted: 01/09/2025 02:42:13

Lisa Salisbury Hackley

Thank you Bunny, and welcome to the group. They are almost so ugly that they are cute, and they have such personalities. Posted: 01/17/2025 21:34:00

Carole Kropscot

Hey, everyone - click once on her photo! It will be displayed really big! See the cute twin baby elephants even bigger and better!

I'm fascinated by the written description about elephant twins! A wonderful find for our zoo theme. I appreciated them so much more when I saw the enlarged version on my screen. Their faces were so impactful when I saw them without the large expanse of very light background and rock. One way to post edit such an environment is to darken and blur it a little. Here's my quick edited photo. You can click once on it to make it larger. Then close it by clicking once on the word close at the bottom. Posted: 01/09/2025 20:23:45

Lisa Salisbury Hackley

I had another image I was going to use, but this had a story. :)
The image was very sharp - you can see the hairs on their heads...I do like your edit. Posted: 01/13/2025 22:43:42

Nancy Armstrong

Lisa, what an adorable image, and thanks for the backstory about twin baby elephants. You caught the elephants at a good moment with some separation between the two. You also got nice separation between the elephants and the background elements, I assume through some editing. Nice focus, so sharp and no motion blur although they are clearly moving. Being able to see that textured hair makes me feel like I could reach out and touch them. Posted: 01/19/2025 21:58:48

Connie Reinhart

Speaking of backgrounds: I needed to replace a background, but isolating the image would be very tedious. Then a light bulb went off. I loaded some textures into PS Sky Replacement (in a new folder called Backgrounds). It worked beautifully. Posted: 01/20/2025 20:13:37

PID Digital Dialogue

Group 12