We can call them animals, or creatures, which may conjure up a fantastical thought of Maurice Sendak characters, or an unexplored fairy tale terrain of existence. Animals are mystical, amazing beings, though sometimes they become stereotyped with a negative image. Snakes, bats, sharks, crocodiles, spiders, and many other wondrous creatures often are viewed as wild beasts of nightmarish proportion. With cinematic imagery in films like Arachnophobia , Jaws , and other horror films, the animals become the enemies, portrayed as ominous foes of nature. Photographers can help alter this view, showing the silken webs made by tiny seamstress spiders, or the slick, sinewy slither of a snake in motion.
Natural designs come to light in the appearance of certain animals.
Shells curve in mottled surfaces, pointy talons form fine lines, and feathers drape animals in lavish masks of brilliance and disguise. Underwater photography possesses a secret majesty, of hidden kingdoms teeming with spiral-striped fish, and exotic flora blooming upside down. Aquatic images reveal brilliantly colored fish in the darkest caves of the sea, and surreal creatures swimming through flashes of sun. Underwater photographers comb the depths with strobe and flash, magicians documenting the disappearing acts of flickering silver fish. Jeweled scales of serpentine sea creatures flirt amidst a murky blue, while strange chameleon eyes watch from under rocks and coral.