A rare shot with no animal present, but make no mistake, there were pumas hidden in the grass down by that lake. We got to this location at first light to search for a mother and her three cubs that had been spotted in the area the day before. It started to rain, and our tracker wasn’t quite sure of the pumas’ exact location so we had to stay put in our van until he came up with a plan of action. I couldn’t let all that great light go to waste, so I got out and took a bunch of landscape shots. In front of me was Lake Sarmiento and the typical scrub brush of Torres Del Paine called mata negra (black bush) and behind was a spectacular rainbow, pictured below. Top shot: Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 200, f/18 at 1/3rd of a second. Bottom shot: Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 200, f/18 at .5 seconds
Two coastal brown bears just taking it easy on a sandbar near Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. I suppose I looked somewhat similar about twenty yards away face down on the ground with my camera.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 290mm) ISO 640, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second
2018 saw a lot of everyday life circumstances getting in the way of my photography. Hopefully things will get back on track in 2019 and I can return to where I enjoy being most — in the wild. That said, the year did start strong. Karen and I took a “non-wildlife” trip to Belize, which ended up yielding a surprising amount of incidental wildlife, especially of the under water variety. Shortly after that, I travelled to the southern tip of South America for a week of puma tracking. Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile clearly ranks toward the top of the most spectacular wild places that I have ever visited. Unfortunately, the remainder of the year consisted of the birds in my backyard and a single trip with my father to view seals off the coast of Cape Cod. I was busy with photos from other locations around the world, however, as I had quite a backlog of processing to do on all the images I’ve captured over the past 15 years. Lots of home time enabled me to tackle this ongoing challenge. That said, the following ten photos are the highlights captured this year.
10. One of the aforementioned grey seals photographed off the coast of Cape Cod in June.
9. A black howler monkey spotted while visiting the Mayan ruins at Caracol in Belize.
8. I used a slow shutter to capture this blurred image of a guanaco running up a hill in Torres Del Paine, Chile.
7. A southern stingray photographed at Shark Ray Alley in Belize.
6. Patagonian Hog-Nosed Skunk photographed on my final night in Torres Del Paine.
5. Puma in her habitat, Torres Del Paine, Chile.
4. Guanaco at sunset, Torres Del Paine.
3. Puma in shaft of light, Torres Del Paine.
2. Nurse Shark, Shark Ray Alley, Belize.
1. Puma in black bushes. Just a simple portrait of a young female, but this was the first puma I was able to photograph in Chile and the best moment for me this year — when she popped up at close range, with just enough light left in the day to capture the image.
Thought this one would be appropriate for the last post before the holiday — a sea otter floating in front of the reflection of a Christmas tree. Photographed in Moss Landing on the central California coast. Happy Holidays everyone. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 1600, f/3.5 at 1/30th of a second
Trogons and kingfishers are among my favorite bird species. Both are present worldwide and both come in many varieties depending on location. I wasn’t expecting this guy when I was hiking through the forest of Tangkoko National Park in Indonesia in search of tarsiers and black-crested macaques. But there it was — a green-backed kingfisher — which exists only in the forests of central and northern Sulawesi and a few surrounding islands. Well worth the effort to stop for a few quick shots before resuming the search for primates. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/40th of a second
A female leatherback turtle after having just spent the past few hours laying eggs. She will rest for a few minutes, worn out by the effort, before returning to the sea. What she leaves behind is a hundred or so eggs — only a small fraction of which will survive the gauntlet of dangers that lay ahead and eventually make it to adulthood. Nikon D800 with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens, ISO 400, f/5 at 1/160th of a second
After yesterday’s brief foray into the abstract world of flower anatomy, I’m back today with something a bit more familiar — baby animals. In this case a Galápagos sea lion pup. Karen and I chartered a half day private tour to the tiny island of La Fe, mainly for snorkeling in the surrounding water. We landed our boat on the only sandy patch of land on the island. There were about eight sea lions waiting to greet us as we arrived — including this inquisitive youngster. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/500th of a second
Something a bit different today — a macro shot of a flower. Actually many flowers. The yellow spike in the middle of a calla lily is called the spadix. It’s made up of many male and female flowers. The male flowers reside on the tip of the spadix and will eventually produce pollen, whereas the female flowers are at the base. I used a very narrow depth of field to bring focus just to the uppermost male flowers. The white area surrounding the spadix is called the spathe. This is the leafy, trumpet-shaped part of the calla lily that we generally consider the flower. I’ve posted a few landscape shots of this very picturesque location before. It’s in Garrapata State Park in California — where a little spring leads down to the ocean. On each side of the spring, the calla lilies grow from the swampy ground. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 400, f/4 at 1/800th of a second
It’s hard to capture the rugged beauty of Torres Del Paine in a photo. I tried my best in this shot and was at least able to capture a few of the elements that make it such a spectacular location — the ubiquitous guanaco on a hillside, the massive peaks in the backdrop, and the mist along with the occasional rainbow that seem to appear out of nowhere before vanishing yet again. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 240mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2500th of a second
A bison calf leads the herd over a hill on a frosty morning in Yellowstone National Park. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second
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