Date Viewed: October 24
Location: Balboa Park, San Diego
Artist: Ralph Lee Hopkins
Title: Baja California
This gallery was a collection of different artists’ photographs, located on the fourth floor of the Natural History Museum. My favorite artist in this collection was Ralph Lee Hopkins. He did several incredible shots of the wildlife of the Baja region, including birds, fish, and whales. What really impressed me was the clarity of these images- this was a skilled photographer with really nice equipment, and some of these must have been taken off the side of a moving boat. In some of the photos, like “California Sea Lion,” you can really see the personality of the wildlife. Of course, the sea lion looks very humorous and “in your face,” it looks like a very unique shot. Another favorite was “Nesting Terns,” which shows a bunch of white birds gathering to nest. There are so many birds in so small a space, it reminds me of one of those “Magic Eye” puzzles I used to see as a kid, the one where you relax your eyes to see a hidden image. Finally, there was “Old Soul,” a close-up shot of a whale’s eye. If you look hard enough, you can see the photographer’s reflection in the eye. This shot was very beautiful, and yet a bit saddening at the same time. It looked like the whale was dying, and yet there was a sense of calm and wisdom. I discussed it with my dad for a while, and we agreed that while it was a beautiful photograph, it wasn’t something we would want to display in our home.
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