Denver, Colorado.

This week, Amy asks us to share our images and thoughts on a challenge she calls, “On Display”. You can read her entire challenge post here. Being unable to drive by a museum without stopping, I have many, probably hundreds, images of museum displays that I can share for this challenge. However, I have a single collection of favorites that came from the Denver Nature and Science Museum.

Though taxidermy is no longer the draw for museum attendees it once was and museums are paring down the quantity of such exhibits, I was totally impressed by the quality of displays of animals from around the world still available for viewing at this award winning Denver museum. Their displays are so large and well done that one can truly go around the world without leaving the building.

Even though the displays are encased behind glass, judicious viewing of the image in the viewfinder and careful composition can eliminate most reflections that spoil the realism of the resulting photograph. What reflections remained in my images were removed using post processing via Photoshop Elements. To give readers an idea of the size of some of the displays, I conclude this post with an image that features a wide angle panoramic view of one of their large African dioramas.

If you look carefully, you can see that the image appears “cutoff” on the right as you can only see one of the zebras featured in the middle image. If you view the display “close-up”, you’ll see a small herd of zebras and a beautifully composed landscape. All three of the images in this challenge response feature the very same diorama.

What I really enjoyed about the photographs captured at the Denver museum was attempting to make the images look as realistic as possible during their creation. The transition between foreground elements and the painted backgrounds are seamless. For more views of the African diorama displays at the museum, check out the gallery of images from a Travel Tuesday post last March. You can view the gallery here.

John Steiner