Category: Critters

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 213: ‘Cecil’

There are few events to take the Internet’s attention hostage like this week’s outrage over the death of a 13 year-old Zimbabwean lion. Vince O’Sullivan photographed the proud animal one year ago today—Aug. 1, 2014. He updated the caption to add context better coming from him than me.

“This is, of course, ‘Cecil’—the lion famously shot and wounded by crossbow fired by American dentist Walter Palmer in July 2015 and then shot, killed, skinned, and beheaded for trophies two days later”, Vince explains. “Living in a nature reserve, Cecil was completely inured to people in vehicles that didn’t interfere with him or his prey. So approaching him closely was never difficult, a daily occurrence for him and something he paid no attention to”. 

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Critters by Joe Wilcox
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When the Crowd Roars

The Internet backlash against dentist Walter Palmer for killing Cecil the lion is one of the best examples of mob journalism ever. The narrative spreading across the InterWebs is some ways well-meaning but in many more is destructive. Meanwhile, the force of collective-will tempts too many journalists to join the mob opinion, when they should stand aside and offer objective and responsible reporting.

Before writing another word, I must praise National Geographic for the best reporting about this event. The magazine offers broader perspective and, more importantly, puts big game hunting into larger context, while taking an objective tone. The raging mob’s perspective is myopic, and news sites supporting it fail the public good.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 204: ‘Planking’

Some fads are short-lived, while others you wish hadn’t been even that long. There is my reaction to planking four years ago. I was oblivious to the thing until someone commented on a pic of our cat Kuma posted to my social network. For fun, and no other reason, we begin three days of selections searched using the “P” word.

First up, from Patricia van Casteren, is the appropriately self-titled “Planking”, which she shot on June 21, 2011, using the Sony Alpha DSLR-A550. Vitals: f/6.3, ISO 200, 1/500 sec, 210mm. “Even the polar bears are totally hooked on planking these days”, she says, providing reference to a Wikipedia article for folks who don’t know what the hell the thing—also known as the “Lying Down Game”. I am surprised to see the origins go back more than three decades, given the sudden surge in popularity four years ago. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 143: ‘Oskar Running in the Snow’

Happy Caturday, and forgive today’s selection—the third feline featured in this series (see Days 38 and 51 for the others). Consider self-titled “Oskar Running in the Snow I” as a gift to my wife, who celebrated a birthday yesterday. She loves kitties.

Emmanuel Keller captured Oskar on Feb. 9, 2013, using Nikon D4 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Vitals: f/5, ISO 250, 1/1250 sec, 200mm. There are four other pics in the series, and I almost picked IV for the snow spray but favored the first for composition (and Creative Commons licensing). Both equally appeal to me (and hopefully to you, too). Another I liked less but still considered is from a February 2015 shoot. 

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