A few months ago, my friend Nikki over at Golden West College in Huntington Beach contacted me about using one of my images on the cover of their introductory biology lab manual.  The manual is finally done, and I couldn’t be any happier with the result:

I was very happy to have an image appear on this lab manual, but I’m also very happy with Nikki’s choice of photos.  I’ve been living in southern California for almost 7 years and the Brown Pelican has been one of my favorite birds since I moved out here.  To watch them fly is to watch pure grace.  The way they skim the water, just inches from its glassy surface is–to me–poetry.  As a photographer, I’ve spent many mornings standing on the bridge at Bolsa Chica Wetlands with Pelicans fishing all around me.  Its sometimes very satisfying to put my camera down, enjoying the moment.  The Pelican you see on the cover of the lab manual was photographed at La Jolla Caves in La Jolla, CA–a location well-known to bird photographers.

We’re lucky to see these magnificent birds at all.  In the early 1970s, pesticides like DDT severely threatened the future of these birds.  Fortunately, conservation measures were able to bring them back from the brink of disaster.