It seemed each lake in Torres Del Paine National Park had its own unique shade of blue or green — due to the sediment in the water. A nice contrast to the Chilean flamingos, that although not everywhere, were a fairly common sight.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/800th of a second

I always try to grab a few slow-shutter panning shots when I can. Guanacos were so ubiquitous in Torres Del Paine that it made it easy to experiment. In this case, 1/15th of a second seemed to be the perfect speed.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 800, f/20 at 1/15th of a second

As I mentioned in a post last week, it rained a lot in Patagonia. In fact, almost the entire time I was there. But when the sun did peek through the clouds, it provided some dramatic light to go along with the dramatic scenery. In this instance, the shaft of light acted as both a spotlight and a backlight as the puma crossed in front of the massive face of Cerro Paine Chico.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second

I had mentioned in a previous post that I saw a mother puma with three cubs. It was tough getting a good angle on the little guys, but they did take a quick break from their rainy nap to look up at the cliff that I was standing on. At least two of them did. You can just barely see the ears of the third cub over to the right (or that might be the mother). The cubs were about four months old and still had a bit of blue color to their eyes and spots on their fur.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/250th of a second

There were several interesting birds that I was able to photograph in Chile. This was one of my favorites — the tufted tit tyrant. They were very quick, but I eventually captured a few shots displaying their characteristic head tufts.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/500th of a second

The centerpiece of Torres Del Paine is the grouping of mountains consisting of two massive peaks (Small Paine to the right and Large Paine to the left) the sharp points known as the horns tucked in behind, and the iconic towers that give the park its name (the towers aren’t visible in this photo but they are to the right of frame). More on the unique geology of these mountains in a future post but for now, another puma can be seen down below, as well as an unsuspecting guanaco just above the puma.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 120mm) ISO 800, f/4 At 1/1600th of a second

There are two species of fox that live in Torres Del Paine. The culpeo (or Andean red fox) and the more common Patagonian fox — also known as the South American gray fox. This is the latter. He was enjoying a good scratch after scavenging the remains of a guanaco carcass.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 360mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/640th of a second

My trip to Patagonia was all about the pumas, but there were many other species to be seen in Torres Del Paine, both furred and feathered. My favorite among them was the Patagonian hog-nosed skunk. I really wanted a few shots of this animal and was finally granted the opportunity on my final night in the park. They spend almost all their waking hours with their noses firmly planted in the ground, foraging for whatever it is they forage for. I was told their spray striking range is about ten feet on a windless day so I was cautious not to get too close when this skunk finally lifted up and started to regard me with suspicion. After sniffing the air a few times and growing comfortable with the snapping of my shutter, the skunk went back to foraging and wandered off into deeper brush.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/3200th of a second

This is the third puma I was able to photograph in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile — a mother of three cubs. In this image, she’s lookin back at her cubs to make sure they are following close behind as she heads off in search of dinner. We were viewing them from up on a cliff and then hiked quickly in the direction they were headed and photographed them a few more times as they walked along a beach and then disappeared.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/500th of a second

Meet the guanaco. Easily the most commonly seen animal in Torres Del Paine (pronounced Pine-ay, by the way). Their ubiquity, and iconic shape upon the landscape reminded me a bit of photographing bison in Yellowstone. And like bison, they can be found individually or in large herds. This guanaco was keeping a close watch on a puma that had just unsuccessfully chased a herd further down the mountain. Guanacos can outrun pumas, but fall prey to the puma’s ambush tactics. As I often do, I used a graduated neutral density filter to hold the detail in the sky while exposing for the foreground.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1600th of a second, three stop graduated neutral density filter