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Originally Posted by herr_oberst
Beautiful picture. Subject, composition, technical expertise all working together. Photography at it's best.
I'd also like to offer a suggestion to those of us that would love to ride an elephant; I dated a woman who was an absolute animal lover. When she was telling me about her sightseeing trip to Africa I asked if she had ridden an elephant while she was there, and quickly got an education on the many ways that that was a terrible thing to do to those animals and how we should try and educate others on the reasons. Therefore, I will gently offer a suggestion that we all educate ourselves about what is involved with preparing these magnificent beasts for tourists. It's kind of sad, and it's really not necessary. I'll get off my soapbox, but I'll leave one link in case anyone is interested.
https://www.worldnomads.com/responsible-travel/make-a-difference/planet/why-elephant-riding-should-be-removed-from-your-list |
I do have mixed emotions about riding them. It’s an incredible experience but they’re not doing it because they want to. The place we road them in Kanchanaburi did seem to treat them well and was a very large area but my wife and I have agreed we won’t ride elephants again.
After the ride, we were feeding the elephant bananas when my wife said I should tip the elephant handler more. He was sitting on the elephant so I started to reach up to him with some money when my wife said just give it to the elephant so I did. For a brief moment the elephant started to put the money in his mouth but then handed it up to the handler. Pretty smart.