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
This is a gray langur, also known as a hanuman langur, and I met the little guy in Bandhavgarh National Park in India. I saw quite a few of these monkeys, including lots of mothers with babies. Langurs practice what is known as alloparenting, meaning that the infant is eventually given to other mothers in the group to raise as their own.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/250th of a second
I liked the simplicity of this one — a lone gentoo penguin on the shoreline with partial reflection in the sand.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second
Still plenty of shots from the Falklands to share, but I figured it was time to start mixing in a few creatures from other parts of the world. So why not a Japanese macaque to get the week started? This guy actually grabbed the front of my lens as if he didn’t initially like the composition I was going for.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 200, f/3.5 at 1/40th of a second
I’ve photographed many different species of sea lions from around the world — the Australian sea lion, the Galapagos sea lion, the stellar sea lion, California sea lion, etc. — but none live up to the name for me quite like the male southern sea lions that I saw in the Falklands. They really do have a nice lion-like mane. This guy had recently been in the water, so his mane was a bit slicked down, but when they dry out they really thicken up. My visit to the islands was a bit early for sea lion season, but I was lucky to see five or six of the large males and about twenty females and pups scattered about on different islands.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/6.3 at 1/500th of a second
Here’s a close up look at the feet of the five different penguins that I photographed in the Falklands. Up top is the gentoo penguin, followed by the rockhopper, the king, the Magellanic and finally the macaroni.
Gentoo — Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 500, f/4 at 1/2000th of a second
Rockhopper — Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second
King — Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 300) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/100th of a second
Magellanic — Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/60th of a second
Macaroni — Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 380mm) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/1000th of a second