Lizard Wrangler Photograph by Genevieve Shiffrar, San Francisco, California
"Some pets are ephemeral," notes Genevieve Shiffrar. At a roundup on a ranch in Nipomo, California, she caught this boy snaring lizard livestock with blades of grass.
Photo Critique by Susan Welchman, Photography Editor
This may not be what you call a beautiful photograph, but it is unique and enjoyable for its ingredients, maybe for more than how it was shot. It was one of those times when the photographer caught a person doing something very odd. This kid had captured these lizards, taken a blade of grass, and lassoed their necks. He was just holding them, but he was holding them over his face. And he was comfortable enough to do this for the camera. The fence in the background is just a construction fence. You're not interested in it, so your eye doesn't go there. You're simply interested in the part of the face with the lizards on it. That someone took the effort to wind the blades of grass around the lizards' necks and then call them pets is inventive. It took imagination. We're happy that the photographer sent this photo to us, that we selected it, and that you all can see it. It's not your average cat or dog.
