One more to take us into the holidays. This gentoo penguin colony was just outside the front door of the lodge on Sea Lion Island in the Falklands, making it quite convenient for early morning, sunrise shots. Most of the penguins were sitting on eggs that would eventually hatch a few weeks later. Hope everyone has a great holiday. I’ll be back Monday with new posts.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/22 at 1/60th of a second
This is an old one from my trip to Madagascar back in 2007. Sometimes you have your best sightings on your way into national parks. Thus was the case with this little tree frog that I saw along the side of the road in the town of Perinet on my way into Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. It’s called an Elena’s tree frog. Not sure who Elena was but she discovered a rather dashing frog.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 145mm) ISO 100, f/22 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-800 flash units on a Really Right Stuff bracket
Here’s another imperial shag (also known as imperial cormorant), this time showing a bit more detail of the blue eye and orange nasal knob. In the breeding season, they also have those nice white whiskery things above the eye. This guy was obviously taking a bit of a rest — a difficult task I would imagine amidst all the noise of the rockhopper penguins and other shags.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/250th of a second
I took a lot of photos of different penguin prints in the sand. I kind of liked the curve to this gentoo’s journey as it headed back to the colony after an afternoon of fishing.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17 to 35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/11 at 1/250th of a second
Leaf tailed geckos are pretty crazy looking creatures. From the expression on this guy’s face, it’s hard tell if he was pleased to see me or if he wanted to eat me. He was actually displaying his bright red mouth as a warning sign to stay away. My guide and I were heading back to camp late one afternoon on the island of Nosy Mangabe, just off the east coast of Madagascar.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 80mm) ISO 100, f/22 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash
Before they molt, baby king penguins can look bigger than the adults, with all those furry feathers. I photographed these four babies following the leader late one afternoon on Saunders Island. On this one beach, called The Neck, I was able to photograph all five of the penguin species that regularly inhabit the Falklands.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 28mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1600th of a second
In addition to penguins, there are many other interesting birds to be found in the Falklands. This is one of the more colorful — the long-tailed meadowlark. On Carcass Island, the smaller birds are fairly tame because there are no ground predators like foxes or rodents. I was able to get some out-of-focus yellow gorse in the background as this guy sang a song to whoever was listening.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4.5 at 1/500th of a second
It was fun to watch the gentoo penguins as they emerged from the crashing surf on their way out of the water. I used a fast shutter speed to freeze the water droplets on this one.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/7.1 at 1/2000th of a second
If you’ve looked into my Costa Rica gallery, you may have seen this shot before but I never posted it to the blog. This was the only time I’ve ever seen a mountain lion/puma/cougar (they’re all the same thing) in the wild. And she was only five feet away. She wasn’t five feet away when I took this photo — more like 40 feet — but she was five feet away when I first came across her the night before. It was the first time I visited Corcovado National Park down in southern Costa Rica. I arrived late in the day and had to hike for about an hour or so to reach a permanent tented camp on the beach. I had about an hour of good light left after setting up camp so decided to go for a hike in the rain forest that led down to the beach. The forest was very thick and I had my longest lens mounted to my camera so I decided to stop, take off my backpack and change to a shorter lens. As soon as I had my lens off my camera is when I felt a presence to my left and turned to see the puma. She had a dead white faced capuchin monkey in her mouth and was backing into the brush. I couldn’t believe my bad luck — the shot of a lifetime and I had a camera with no lens on it. The next morning I got up at about 4 AM and hiked through forest. Sure enough, I found the puma, but without the monkey. This is the one shot that I got before the puma turned and walked away.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-800 flash
A nice thing about having willing subjects and plenty of time is that you get to play and experiment with different shutter speed/aperture combinations. Thus was the case in the Falklands. After getting all the sharp portraits of king penguins that I needed, I tried some motion blurred effects. For this one I had my camera on a tripod and dialed in a very low shutter speed. The king penguins are so graphic with their white, black and especially, those bright yellow feathers that I was able to get some interesting results.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 32, f/16 at 1/3rd of a second