As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have this as yet amorphous project that I'm calling 'Behind Glass' involving photographing items in museums, conservatories, etc. to delve into the human obsession with collecting and looking at things of all sorts. As I've begun working, I realized it's not just taxidermied, dried, or otherwise no-longer living things that are collected, there are also zoos and aquariums that collect fauna and put them on display.
On my latest trip to the California Academy of Sciences I was able to get some rather interesting images and views of the normal and unusual species they had on display.
(This is another photo heavy post so I have once again shrunk the image size so I could incorporate a larger quantity of pictures)
That yellow and brown spotted thing on the right is actually a very big eel that has an awesome symbiotic relationship with the shrimp crawling on it.
I just love sea dragons (and sea horses).
Look closely, there's a tadpole in there!
I know spiders make some people squeamish but I tend to find them fascinating and beautiful (and yes, I'm 'one of those people that catches and releases spiders found inside my home). This orb spider was utterly gorgeous.
In my mind this dart frog was totally posing for me, sexy calendar style.
The textures and patterns in this set up fascinate me as much as the snake itself.
This catfish was bigger than me.
There was no way I could get this anaconda all in one frame.
