Africa

1).  My first reaction to the picture first displayed was majestic.  The proximity to the animal is also somewhat mind-boggling.  A lot of these animals are known as dangerous to humans (and other animals, too).  The fact that he was willing to be in that sort of possible danger in order to get such beautiful pictures shows his dedication to his work.

2).

3).  This is a picture of an elephant strolling down wherever it is he is, with dust all up in his face.  It's beautiful and interesting - the dust is frozen, along with the elephant with its closed eyes and curled trunk, in the middle of taking a step.  I'm not sure where the dust came from, but that could be left to the imagination of the viewers.

4).  The rule of photography that's most evident here is simplicity - there's a simple background and there's a single, obvious subject.  Balance is also evident here.  There's a lot going on in each part of the picture, leaving no space out (except maybe the top, which I think was left in the picture as a result of the dust swirling above the elephant).

5).  He uses a 2003 model of the Nikon Scan 9000 (which he says is really loud, but the animals get used to it).  He doesn't want to use a telephoto lens because you can't "capture an animal's soul" from 100 yards away.

6).  He wishes to raise awareness for animal conservation in Africa.

7).  He hopes the local communities will help out Tusk and The Nature Conservancy with the work they do to help the animals of Africa.

8).  "Poaching of elephants financed by the Chinese has exploded once again in the last few years.  In 2005 ivory cost $400 a kilogram.  Today, it is $6,000 a kilo.  As a result, about 10 percent of Africa's elephant population is killed every year, about 30,000 elephants a year."

     He wishes for this to stop - he cares about these animals deeply.