Let's Protect the Wildlife like Our Pets (Taming the Wildlife - A Lesson in photography)

National Pet Day April 11, 2026

Let's Protect the Wildlife like Our Pets

Formerly, Taming the Wildlife - A Lesson in photography

The rules of Nature are the same, bold and cruel,

benevolent and fair.

Photos and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Papilio butterfly resting on a jar of water.  At home, QC   

Caution, slowly get close to your subject,

     a blue butterfly sitting by the water;

like Narcissus admiring his own image; 

     through the lens you're a storyteller.   

Salamander, aquatic reptiles raised as aquarium pets. At home, QC 

Prehistoric in miniature, these reptiles are,

     living fossils frozen by time;

revealed by macro lens the past before human

     came to earth over the clime. 

Parrots and love birds in captivity offer a close photographic 

study of colors and plumage designs. At home, QC

The hardest subject in photography is wildlife;

     unless you study them in captivity;

adapted and acclimatized they yield to details,

     obedient sans freedom and natural beauty.  

A carp eyeing a potential prey across a glass wall. 

Two worlds apart these creatures live: 

    one in water, the other in air;

Yet the rules of Nature are the same,

    bold and cruel, benevolent and fair. ~  

10 Verses to Live By Every Day

 

10 Verses to Live By Every Day

"That others may learn and soon trust you,

show them you're trustworthy, kind and true. ~

Verses and Photos by Dr Abe V Rotor

Banaoang Pass, Santa, Ilocos Sur, wall mural by the author 

at his residence in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

1. Walk, don't run, to see better and to know
the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou.~

2. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi
to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.

Sun on a hazy day

3. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others
undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.

4. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary
to seek perfection of the trade we carry.

5. What is more mean than envy or indolence
but the two themselves riding on insolence.

6. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,
that of the body we can often undermine.

7. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?

8. Friendship that we share to others multiplies
our compassion and love where happiness lies.

    Morning rainbow, Bamban, Tarlac 

9. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,
while goodness builds on goodness in store.

10. That others may learn and soon trust you,

show them you're trustworthy, kind and true. ~

Gem on a Pine and its Shadow

Gem on a Pine and its Shadow

Original Title: Gem Perched on a Tree

Dr Abe V Rotor



Atop Tagaytay Ridge, March 24 2013 Photo by the author.

The brightest gem perched on a tree is looking through,
       to see in its shadow a family free;
to whose care these are to the world and humanity,
       a gift of a Creator, loving and true. ~

Ode to a Stream on the Wall

Ode to a Stream on the Wall

Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor


Markus 1 (in stroller), with friends at home in Lagro QC, 2016

Flow gently, sweetly with the breeze
and sing with the little children;
whisper with the rocks and trees,
make every creature their friend.

Sing the songs of the forest deities,
the cheerful crickets and birds,
lullaby of Mozart, chorus of Liszt:
"Grow and be happy,” they urge. ~

Butterfly's Alive in Children's Art

Butterfly's Alive in Children's Art
Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

“Butterflies are nature’s angels. They remind us what a gift it is to be alive.” —Robyn Nola, Appreciation and Love for Nature

When was the last time you saw a butterfly,

fluttering among flowers in the garden?

No, not on the cellphone, not in the books.

Go, find this lost lovely beauty and friend.

Make it alive in your hands, in your mind

with colors bright and happy in your heart;

tell the world her message of love, peace,

and shall never, never from us, depart.

“When the spirit of nature touches us, our hearts turn into a butterfly!” 

—Mehmet Murat Ildan (Contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker.)

Author demonstrates basic art under the trees.
   

  
 Children's Summer Art Workshop at author's residence

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Go, search your butterfly in the field,

to where she lives free and happy.

No, not with the lens or any gadget;

enshrine her forever like a deity. ~

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." - Nathaniel Hawthorne (American novelist and short story writer.) ~

"Chicks emerge from under a brooding hen."

 "Chicks emerge from under a brooding hen." 

Dr Abe V Rotor

     Sweet sound breaks the calm morning air,

  peaceful and happy in a country fair.

 the newly hatched chicks meet the world,

a mystery of life many times told.

Chicks emerge from under a brooding hen at home. 

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

Unedited photos by the author. 

"The hen symbolizes motherhood - love and care for her brood - with perseverance until her chicks are fully weaned." - avr  

Palette Board Speaks of Neo-Darwinism Evolution of Life

Palette Board Speaks of Neo-Darwinism Evolution of Life 

Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

 Coral reef of deceiving beauty, 

red for warning, black for death;

white as skeleton; blue-green, 

invasion of the primitive scum

that once ruled the earth.  

Speleology and tourism, what a combination;

though both exploit the secrets of the past,  

trace the beginning of human's civilization,

and Plato's allegory of the escaped outcast.    

 Linnaeus, if alive today, would wonder, 

how he missed in his study 

organisms posthumously emerged  

from science and technology.  

If you can decipher what life forms these are, 

you must be an artist, like Picasso or Matisse,

masters of abstract art - not the ideal, the real, 

the form and order of God's creation remised.

Relief painting with a palette knife,

to capture a hatching egg;

take the backseat brush, the time is ripe

for freedom in art, I beg.

 Caked paint on palette board used by the author, 2016

I labored painting to the last rays of the sun, 

     and all the day's worth was gone;

on my pallete board, lo! what I have found,

     a subject never was in my mind. 

A work of art indeed but whose masterpiece?

     and i looked up to heaven to ask

what the images mean and want to convey.     

     it's our world wearing a Janus mask.~