Before Thanksgiving last year I got a call that was at once very exciting and also a bit frightening. I have been slowly working on a series I call Animal Portraits. It’s been a project I’ve been interested in for a long time but finding cool and interesting animals to photograph has made for slow progress. The call was from Rhonda Rubinstein at the California Academy of Sciences. She had an animal for me to photograph, a 15-foot-long reticulated python. As Indiana Jones says, “Snakes, why does it have to be snakes.” The snake’s name was Lemondrop – how bad could it be. I decided that this was as good a time as any to get over my irrational phobia and make it work. I couldn’t be happier with that decision, the shoot went really well. You can watch a behind-the-scenes video here:
Lemondrop now lives in “The Hacienda” on the first floor of the Academy. His house is decorated in images from our shoot.
You can see some of the Lemondrop photos and my animal portraits here: Winokur Photography
The show is opening at California Academy of Sciences on May 9, be sure to drop by and say hello to Lemondrop for me. I’m of course thrilled to see my work 20 feet tall on the side of the building. I understand there are also some murals inside too but I haven’t seen them yet.
As always huge thanks to my team especially Chrysta Giffen and Mike Blumenfeld.
Tags: Winokur Photography
The photos of Lemondrop are beautiful. My daughter has requested a poster for her birthday. I haven’t had any luck locating one. Can you help direct me where I can purchase one?
Thanks!
That’s funny my niece is looking for the same thing for her birthday. I would love to have information on where to purchase. Thanks
Amazing. The snake is beautiful in the video and even more so in your photos. So glad you faced your fear!